Lawyers

Michael A. Shimokaji
For more than 20 years, Mr. Shimokaji has supported clients in industries as diverse as aerospace, apparel, chemicals, household products, medical devices, photo imaging, and semiconductors.

He has been a member of the Steering Committee for the California Minority Counsel Program. He was a founding director of the Orange County Japanese-American Lawyers Association and has served as an instructor in the paralegal program at the University of California, Irvine. Mr. Shimokaji is a past president of the Orange Coast Optimist Club. He served for three years on the Executive Committee for the California State Bar Intellectual Property Section. He is now serving a three year term on the California State Bar Federal Courts Committee.

Following graduation from the University of California, Irvine, with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, Mr. Shimokaji received his Juris Doctorate degree from Southwestern University School of Law. In law school, Mr. Shimokaji was an executive editor for the school’s law review. He has served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Robert M. Takasugi, Judge, United States District Court. Mr. Shimokaji is admitted to the California Bar and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Jacob Bach

Mr. Bach’s expertise is in litigation.

In 1997, he graduated from the University of California, Irvine, with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology. In 2002, he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Masters degree in biological science and at the same time graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School with a Juris Doctorate degree.

Mr. Bach is admitted to the USPTO, as well as the state bars of California, New York and New Jersey.

David Bowls
Mr. Bowls focuses his client support in electrical/electronics, computer software/hardware, communications, and semiconductors for patent matters.

He graduated in 1974 from the University of California at Riverside with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics, Phi Beta Kappa. Thereafter, he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1977 in mathematics from the University of California at Riverside. In 1998, Mr. Bowls received his Juris Doctorate degree from Western State University and then became registered to practice before the USPTO.

Mr. Bowls spent several years for Hughes Aircraft Company in the area of system simulation modeling using computer software engineering.

Randy Chang

Mr. Chang's primary area of practice is focused on patent prosecution, trademark prosecution, patent litigation, and trademark litigation.

He graduated from the University of California, Riverside in 2001 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and graduated from Loyola Law School in 2006.

Mr. Chang is admitted to practice before the USPTO and is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Susan M. Davis
Ms. Davis’ practice is primarily in the biological, chemical, and genetics arts for patent prosecution matters.

She graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science degree in phytopathology, and then undertook graduate courses in genetic engineering at Harvard University.

She is registered with the USPTO as a patent agent. Ms. Davis spent about 10 years as a scientist for EcoScience, Bioran, and BioRad. During her time in industry, Ms. Davis was involved in bioassays for virulence attenuation, antibiotic production, enzyme-linked and radio-immunoassays for medical testing, and immunoassays for clinical control development

Evelyn Defillo

Ms. Defillo’s expertise is in the chemical, mechanical, medical, and pharmaceutical arts.

She is a registered patent agent and former US patent examiner in the chemical engineering group.

Ms. Defillo graduated in 1988 from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña in the Dominican Republic with a Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. She is a registered patent agent.

Carl Giordano

His patent prosecution practice is focused in computer software, wireless communication, optical communication, and digital signal processing.

Mr. Giordano obtained a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) degree and a Master of Engineering (Electrical) degree from City College of New York. In 1995, he received his Juris Doctorate degree from Pace University School of Law.

Mr. Giordano has served as an engineer, primarily in the software area, for over 20 years. He is a registered patent attorney.

Daniel Northfield

Mr. Northfield’s expertise is in computer engineering and electrical engineering.

He graduated in 1985 from Georgia Institute of Technology with a bachelor degree in electrical engineering, and in 1985 from Covenant College with a bachelor degree in natural science. He then graduated from Iowa State University in 1989 with a bachelor degree in computer engineering. In 1997, he received an M.S. in computer science from Marycrest International University. In 2000, he graduated from Drake University Law School where he served on the Drake Law Review.

Prior to law school, Mr. Northfield worked for nearly ten years in the areas of electronics engineering, computer engineering, and computer programming. He is a registered patent attorney.

Alexis Saenz

Mr. Saenz works primarily in the areas of patent prosecution and litigation. In the patent prosecution area, his expertise includes computer software, electronics, optics, and web-based design.

He received his Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School in 2004 and a Bachelors of Science degree in physics from California State University at Dominguez Hills in 1998.

Mr. Saenz was admitted to the United States Patent Bar in 2003. His past industry experience relates to electro-optical systems including testing and development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), semi-conductor devices, fiber optics and lasers. Prior to engaging in the practice of law, Mr. Saenz also assisted a national defense contractor in testing and development of weapons test systems.

Vinay Sathe

Dr. Sathe’s patent prosecution practice is directed towards software and telecommunications. He received his undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, and his Masters and Doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from California Institute of Technology, with a focus on digital communication, digital signal processing and networking.

Dr. Sathe is registered to practice before the USPTO. He has been a technical consultant to several communications and software companies. He was a member of the committee that created the U.S. broadcast high definition television (HDTV) standard.

Most recently, Dr. Sathe was the editor of the MAC/PHY specification of the Multimedia over Coaxial Cable (MoCA) home networking alliance. Dr. Sathe has taught graduate and undergraduate classes in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego.

Lyman Smith

Mr. Smith has BS and MS degrees in chemistry and a JD from St. John's University.

Prior to entering the legal field, Lyman was a development chemist for four years at a large pharmaceutical company and a patent examiner for three years at the US Patent and Trademark Office, specializing in chemical and pharmaceutical patent examination. Mr. Smith has worked in-house and as outside counsel in the patent prosecution and opinion areas of in chemical matter, pharmaceutical methods, proteins, biomarkers, receptors and antibodies.

Peter Tribulski

Supporting clients in patent matters, with a focus in the mechanical and electromechanical areas, Mr. Tribulski received a Bachelor of Engineering science (Mechanical) from John Hopkins University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Maryland.

Prior to becoming a registered patent attorney, Mr. Tribulski worked for several years at Western Electric, including a number of years as an engineering manager.