Paul Redmond Michel, Former Chief Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

Honorable Paul Redmond Michel was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March of 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. On December 25, 2004, he assumed the duties of Chief Judge. After his elevation to Chief Judge, he served as one of 27 judges on the Judicial Conference of the United States, the governing body of the Judicial Branch. In 2005 he was appointed by Chief Justice Rehnquist to also serve on the Judicial Conference’s seven-judge Executive Committee. On May 31, 2010, Chief Judge Michel stepped down from the bench after serving more than 22 years on the court.

In his years on the bench Judge Michel judged thousands of appeals and wrote over 800 opinions, approximately one-third of which were in patent cases.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Judge Michel was assistant district attorney in the Office of the Deputy District Attorney for Investigations in Philadelphia from 1966-74, as well as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve from 1966-72. From 1974-75, he was the Assistant Watergate Special Prosecutor, and from 1975-76 was assistant counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He then became the deputy chief and Koreagate prosecutor for the Public Integrity Section of the United States Department of Justice from 1976-88. He was the associate deputy U.S. attorney general in 1978 and in 1981 became counsel and administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter until his judicial appointment. He has served as adjunct faculty at several institutions of higher education including the George Washington University Law School and John Marshall Law School. In 2012 he joined the Intellectual Property Advisory Council at the University of Akron School of Law.

Judge Michel has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Jefferson Medal, the Frederico Award, the Katz-Kiley Prize, the Eli Whitney Prize, the Sedona Conference® Lifetime Achievement Award, and awards by the ABA Section of Intellectual Property, AIPLA, IPO, the Linn Intellectual Property American Inn of Court, and other leading organizations. He was named one of the 50 most influential leaders in intellectual property in the world by Managing Intellectual Property magazine and inducted into Intellectual Asset Management magazine’s International Hall of Fame.

A frequent speaker on IP subjects, he has also testified before Congress on patent reform legislation and has served as Special Advisor to the Patent Reform Task Force.  Judge Michel earned his B.A. from Williams College in 1963 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1966.

Moderator: Ray Van Dyke, Van Dyke Intellectual Property Law

Raymond Van Dyke is an IP/Patent Attorney and Educator. In his practice he helps a variety of clients in their IP matters. He specializes in patent and trademark matters in various technologies, litigation, licensing, and procurement. After being a partner in big firms, he started his own IP consultancy in Washington, DC, with diverse domestic and international clientele and technologies, handling matters at the USPTO, Federal Circuit and local State and Federal courts. He teaches IP courses for engineers, business people and other professionals at the University of Maryland and George Mason University.  He has also taught at Southern Methodist University, American University, and across the world.  Ray also teaches at NIH and other institutions. He is the Senior Vice President of Special Events at LES and Chair of the LES DC Chapter; an AIPLA Fellow and former Chair of a number of Committees; Chair of the Montgomery County Bar Association IP Section, former Board Member of the DC Chapter of the ACM, former Board Member of ITechLaw (Computer Law Association); and continues his involvement in IPO, the MSBA, AIPPI, ABA, BIO, IEEE and other legal and technical organizations. Ray got his BS, MS in Computer Science and law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is licensed to practice in DC, MD, NY, NJ and TX, as well as the USPTO, and is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Federal, Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Circuit Courts and a number of District Courts, Court of International Trade and Federal Court of Claims.  Ray also continues in his efforts to fight on behalf of the small inventor community in protecting the principles of the patent system.