Practicing since 1995, Mike worked both within private practice and as in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 financial company before joining MVS in 2009. Mike’s practice focuses primarily on protecting his clients’ innovations by writing reader-friendly patent applications, shepherding those applications through the Patent Office, and maximizing the value of issued patents through enforcement, licensing, and sales.

Mike participates in appeals and trials at the United States Patent and Trademark Office including Covered Business Method Review, Supplemental Examination, Ex Parte and Inter Partes Reexamination, and Trademark Oppositions and Cancellations. Mike successfully appealed the Patent Office’s rejection of claims in a utility patent application that resulted in a precedential decision by the Federal Circuit vacating the rejection. In re Durance, 891 F.3d 991 (Fed. Cir. 2018).  He recently overturned an Examiner’s rejection of claims during an ex parte reexamination with an appeal to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. In re Brownmed, Inc., No. 2023-000276 (PTAB Jan. 30, 2023).

Mike represents clients in judicial proceedings related to patents and trademarks. He recently obtained summary judgment in favor of a client accused of infringing trade dress rights in a portable pocket that attaches to a user’s waistband, including an award of attorney fees, and successfully upheld defended the judgment on appeal to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.  Pocket Plus, LLC v. Pike Brands, LLC, 53 F.4th 425 (8^th Cir. 2022).

Mike is a past president of the Iowa Intellectual Property Law Association and a chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the Iowa State Bar Association. Along with Nick Krob from MVS, Mike coaches the Drake University Law School Intellectual Property Moot Court Team. Mike has been an adjunct professor at Drake Law School since 2020, teaching classes in IP Licensing, Patents, and Trademarks and Unfair Competition.