Michael G. Smith

Mr. Smith practices primarily in the areas of Intellectual Property law including preparation and prosecution of patent applications and copyright law.  He also provides patent and copyright infringement analysis and patent validity opinions and represents clients in litigation.  The technical subject matter of Mr. Smith’s work has spanned a wide variety of technical arts including all aspects of computer engineering (from digital design to high-level computer software).  Recent focus has been on medical imaging.  His patent work has also included mass storage devices, database managers, mechanical devices, software development tools, communication system infrastructure, bioinformatics, antimatter propulsion, business methods, multimedia distribution systems, application software and cache.

Legal Background

Mr. Smith is admitted to practice law at the the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and Minnesota. He is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (Registration Number 45,368).

Mr. Smith received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Capital University Law School in Columbus, OH. in 1996. During his law studies, Mr. Smith was placed on the Dean's Academic List in 1994 and 1995, earned a 3.75 g.p.a. in Intellectual Property Law courses, and was nominated by the law school Dean for the A.S.C.A.P. Nathan Burkan writing competition.

Mr. Smith is a former utility patent examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office where he examined patent applications in computer peripheral technologies.

Technical Background

Mr. Smith graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. (Quantitative Methods, minor in Finance, 1982). During college, he developed software tools at Control Data Corp, founded and managed the Computer Science Club and managed for two years the Alpine Ski Racing team at the University of St. Thomas.  After graduation, he developed software tools at Lucent (Bell Labs), imaging software, communications software and database managers at IBM, device drivers at Unisys, electronic data interchange software at America Online and industrial control software at Square D Corp.  In his last position in software development, he was first technical team leader of the pioneering Internet banking system at the nation’s fourth largest bank, Bank One.

Business Background

Mr. Smith graduated from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. (M.B.A. 1987, minor in Marketing). During his M.B.A. studies, he developed a pioneering personal computer software application for employment agencies in partnership with Creative Options, Inc.

Publications

Presentations

Mr. Smith has provided presentations on Patent Law to the Graduate Program in Software at the University of St. Thomas, April 2004, the University of Denver College of Law, in March 2003, the Twin Cities Object-Oriented User Group in Sept. 2000, and the Twin Cities Java User Group in March 2000.

Appointments

Mr. Smith is appointed to the Board of Visitors of the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, MI. and the Law Mentor Program at the William Mitchell School of Law in St. Paul, MN.