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’ mechanical and financial service 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 also 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 recently 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). This is one of only four such results at the Federal Circuit since 2016.

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. Mike coaches the Drake University Law School Intellectual Property Moot Court Team.