Our life’s work is to protect yours
Miller, Matthias & Hull is a team of patent prosecutors with key strengths in the chemical, mechanical, electrical and biotechnology arts.
Each partner has been practicing patent law for more than a decade. And before practicing law, they worked in their respective industries. MMH partners have engineering degrees from some of the finest universities in the country.
Thomas A. Miller, PartnerTom is an experienced attorney most active in patent prosecution, portfolio management and providing opinions of counsel. For example, Tom drafts and prosecutes U.S. and foreign patent applications; renders non-infringement, validity, patentability and inventorship opinions; drafts and interprets license, indemnification, employment and non-complete agreements; prepares and prosecutes trademark and copyright registrations; and counsels clients on a range of intellectual property issues including portfolio management, patent strategy, and design-around efforts.
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Brent E. Matthias, PartnerSince becoming an attorney in 1996, Brent has practiced exclusively in the areas of patent prosecution and related opinion and counseling matters. While his focus is primarily within the mechanical arts, Brent also has specific experience in the electro-mechanical, electrical, and software areas. Brent has worked extensively on medical devices, consumer products, industrial machinery, automotive technology, and process control applications. Brent also has extensive experience protecting intellectual property rights in foreign countries.
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Michael R. Hull, PartnerMike practices patent prosecution and advises clients in intellectual property matters, with a particular emphasis placed on patent prosecution and opinion work in the chemical, mechanical, and electro-mechanical arts.
A transplant from California, Mike moved to Chicago after graduating from law school in 1990. In his 19 years as a Chicago patent attorney, Mike is a veteran of two large Chicago intellectual property firms as well as an international general practice firm. Throughout his career, he has specialized in mechanical and chemical patent prosecution as well as patent litigation.
Phillip M. Pippenger, PartnerPhillip joined the partnership in 2011, after spending many years as an equity partner with another large Chicago intellectual property firm. Phillip serves Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP as the head of the electrical engineering practice.
In addition to being actively engaged in patent prosecution, evaluation, due diligence, and counseling, Phillip also manages the firm's litigation practice in the electrical arts..
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H. Jack Fassnacht, Of CounselJack Fassnacht's practice is limited to intellectual property law. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jack graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1977 with a degree in chemical engineering. After college, he spent eight years working for Phillips Petroleum Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Scott E. Baxendale, Of CounselScott Baxendale has been a practicing patent attorney since 1996. After receiving his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 1988, with honors, Scott began his career as an information technologies consultant with Anderson Consulting, now Accenture. While with Anderson, he specialized in the development of large-scale integrated distribution systems for clients in the retail industry. He then obtained his JD from The John Marshall Law School in 1996, again with honors, and has been engaged entirely in intellectual property law for the fourteen years since.
Frank B. McDonald, Of CounselAfter receiving his mechanical engineering degree from Ohio University, Frank's career began as a project engineer with Rohm and Haas Company, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company. While with Rohm and Haas, he worked on a variety of mechanical projects related to the manufacture of wholesale chemical products. Frank left Rohm and Haas to pursue a master's degree in Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He decided thereafter to enter law school and earned his JD from the University of Michigan as well. After working briefly as a tax attorney for E. I. Dupont de Nemours & Company, Frank became registered to practice before the US Patent & Trademark Office. Since 1977, Frank has been engaged entirely in intellectual property law, spending the bulk of his career with Dana Corporation, an Ohio-based automotive and industrial first-tier supplier.
Jennifer L. Holmes, AssociateWhile attending law school, Jenny worked as a patent agent at a large corporation in Research Triangle Park, N.C. where she focused primarily in the area of agricultural biotechnology. Upon graduation from law school in 2001, Jenny began practicing as a patent attorney in Chicago, Ill. Her practice primarily involves patent prosecution and opinion matters in both the biotechnology and mechanical arts. Jenny also has patent litigation and interference experience.
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Nicole M. Bulman, AssociateNicole M. Bulman is an experienced associate with the firm. Her practice focuses on patent prosecution, licensing, and intellectual property counseling in the electrical, mechanical and computer software arts. She also has significant experience working with university technology transfer offices and the financial services industry.
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Andrea A. Yu, AssociateAndrea is an associate in our electrical and software arts practice group. While attending law school, Andrea worked as a patent agent at a medical device company in San Diego where she drafted numerous patent applications and responsive amendments. Andrea's experience primarily focused on spinal implants, spinal surgical methods, spinal implant manufacturing processes, spinal surgical tools, and mechanical products related to back injury. She also assisted the Chief Patent Counsel in other IP matters, such as prior art searches.
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Dennis G. Kapolnek, AssociateDennis is an associate with the firm who has strong background in the electrical arts. As an undergraduate at the University of Miami, Dennis earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering with the Audio Option. This degree is a specialized electrical engineering program which adds high level courses in digital signal processing, digital audio, and speech recognition, to the established electrical engineering curriculum.
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Davis M. Chin Jr., AssociateDavis is active in a variety of areas in intellectual property law, with a particular emphasis in patent prosecution and related opinion matters in the electrical and mechanical arts.
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Robin S. O, Patent AgentAfter obtaining his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 2005, Robin worked as an engineer with Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill., as well as American Power Conversion Corporation, in West Kingston, Rhode Island. His technical experience exposed him to such technologies as interface components for real-time beamline controls using EPICS, the testing of the digital functionality of temperature controllers, servo motors and electronic motor drives driven by phase-locked loop systems, x-ray diffraction, power supplies for computer networks and servers, network interface cards, uninterruptible power supplies, and surge protection hardware and software.
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Sonal Agarwal, Patent AgentSonal is an experienced technical specialist with the firm. She brings over two years of work experience from Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, SC, a general practice law firm in Wisconsin, where she was a member of their intellectual property practice group. Sonal's expertise is in the areas of electrical, computer and mechanical arts, including but not limited to, computer software, memory/data storage systems, computer architecture and hardware, computer networks, impedance spectroscopy techniques, image/video processing and compression techniques, medical imaging and optical systems, wireless communications, automotive components, simple to complex mechanical devices and systems, bio-fuel analysis, very-large-scale-integration(VLSI)/semi-conductor manufacturing and small off-road vehicles. Sonal is also versed in C/C++, java, assembly language, verilog and the mentor graphics suite.
Jeffrey K. Berger, Patent AgentJeffrey K. Berger is a patent agent with the firm. His practice primarily involves patent prosecution for clients developing valuable electronic and software technologies, in businesses such as earth moving equipment, personal electronic devices, communications systems and automotive electronics.
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Sara Butterfield, Patent AgentDr. Butterfield is a Patent Agent with the firm. Sara grew up in Los Angeles but has had the opportunity to live and work in different parts of the country and abroad throughout her career. After obtaining a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill, Sara worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA.
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Airik Phillips, Technical SpecialistAirik is a technical specialist with the firm. As such, he drafts patent applications, responses to office actions and prepares other documents for filing in the US Patent and Trademark Office. Since many of our clients file overseas as well, Airik also works with attorneys in other international jurisdictions to obtain foreign patents for our clients as well. Attorneys in our office also draw upon his technical background when analyzing search results and rendering opinions or counseling our clients in other ways as well.
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Julio Bazan, IP IllustratorJulio is the firm illustrator and as such is active in preparing drawings for the numerous patent and trademark applications the firm files. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the National Engineering University, Lima, Peru in 1978. After obtaining his degree he worked in industry as a CAD designer for many years with companies such as Motorola and Parker-Hannifin before entering the field of patent law.
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Flavia Damsa, ParalegalFlavia Damsa is a paralegal with Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP. She earned her BA in Politics and Communication from Lake Forest College in 2010 and her Certificate in Paralegal Studies from DePaul University Chicago in 2012. Prior to joining MMH, she held a similar position with Leydig, Voit & Mayer in Chicago.
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Guadalupe D. Palomar, Office ManagerAs Office Manager, Lupe is responsible for many of the administrative functions here at Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP. Among her largest responsibilities at the firm is the handling of our monthly accounting and bookkeeping requirements. As such, she works with the partners in generating and transmitting invoices to our clients, paying accounts payable, issuing statements of accounts, handling collections, administering to payroll, and interfacing with our outside accountants. On the administrative side, Lupe assists in the training of our legal assistants, maintains office supplies, assists in travel arrangements for attorneys, assists the partners in human resource documentation and compliance, serves as a liason with our IT partners and office building, and otherwise attends to the smooth day-to-day operation of the firm.
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Megan Loye, Legal AssistantMegan Loye is a legal assistant and has been with Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP since 2009. She started after receiving her Associates Degree from Fox College, specializing in business communications, office procedures and computer skills. Megan has a proficiency in a variety of office software applications and is certified in Microsoft Word and Excel.
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Meg Boinski, Legal AssistantMeg Boinski is a legal assistant with Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP. She has been with MMH since 2010 after receiving her Associates Degree from Fox College, specializing in business communications, office procedures and computer skills. She is currently (MOS) certified in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
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Jenelle DeVries, Legal AssistantJenelle DeVries is a legal assistant with Miller, Matthias & Hull LLP. She earned her Associate of Applied Science in Administrative Assisting and her Certificate in Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Word & Excel from Fox College in 2011.
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