LEGAL NEWS PHOTO BY CYNTHIA PRICE
By Cynthia Price
Legal News
Wide and varied experience headlines the profile of former patent judge Stuart Levy, who has had a career both in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in Washington D.C. and later in private practice.
Price Heneveld, the Grand Rapids firm founded in 1952 that specializes broadly in intellectual property, will benefit from that expertise as Levy joins the firm Of Counsel, taking an active, though part-time, role.
Levy retired after 35 years at the USPTO, and was also Of Counsel at his previous firms, but it is clear from his rapid-fire responses and his command of vast patent law knowledge that he is not ready to hang up his hat quite yet.
“I went right from the Patent Office to Oblon, Spivak, and it was a wonderful firm, but then I saw an opportunity to move to Sughrue [Sughrue, Mion Patent Law Firm in D.C.] and do complex high value cases for clients to get their ideas patented,” Levy says. “That and a mixture of teaching I did for about five years eventually made me decide I wanted a more relaxed atmosphere, so I?called my friend Todd Van Thomme here.”
Price Heneveld partner Van Thomme is another national player in the patent law field, having served as President for the Association of Intellectual Property Firms (AIPF) from 2010 to 2012. The two met through working on the AIPF annual meeting committee. “We quickly developed a professional and personal friendship,” Van Thomme says. “He’s absolutely brilliant.”
Though both are also members of AIPLA?(American Intellectual Prop-
erty Law Association), Van Thomme feels the AIPF has a lot to offer “the IP boutique law firm,” as its website (www.aipf.com) calls its members. Van Thomme helped create the AIPF Brand of Excellence, which offers support in terms of both the law and the business aspects of running a firm.
Van Thomme points out that there are a number of advantages to putting in the extra time to volunteer at professional organizations, such as attracting someone of Levy’s caliber and perspective to West Michigan. “It’s a fantastic thing, frankly, not only for our firm, but also for West Michigan, in the sense that so far as I know he’s the only resource in this area who’s been in that board judge role,” Van Thomme comments. “Usually we see things just from the lawyer side, so we’re super excited to have him here to tell us, frankly, just how it does work from the other side, give us an idea of the details on the practical end.”
Levy’s path started out in Brooklyn, followed by a move to Queens where he went to Far Rockaway High School, now shut down, that “produced three Nobel Prize winners” including physicist Richard Feynman, as well as the rather more notorious Bernie Madoff.
Levy then attended City College of New York for an Electrical Engineering Degree. He received his J.D. from George Mason University School of Law, and had already worked as a patent examiner for approximately nine years upon his graduation. “I was debating going into industry,” he says, “but I got pro-
moted to supervisor, so I stayed in the patent office. Then I was appointed as an administrative law judge in March of 2000. I sat on approximately 2000 appeals.”
Along the way, he also received a certificate in advanced public management from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. While USPTO supervisor, he oversaw first the mechanical section and then computer technology, where he continues to have in-depth knowledge.
His service at the USPTO was marked by many distinctions, including chairing the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure Revision Committee in a comprehensive rewrite of the manual. The committee had over 80 members and there were more than 18 teams on the project.
He recalls his time at the USPTO, an agency with over 8000 patent examiners in the DC office alone, as “wonderful,” noting that each examiner must have in-depth knowledge about his or her subject area as well as know the statute. (The patent office primarily operates under the America Invents Act, which among other things revised previous legislation to move from a “first to invent” to a “first inventor to file” system.) He observes, “The office really does an excellent job in terms of the quality of what comes out.”
During his tenure, Levy and his team received a National Performance Review Hammer Award, created by then-Vice President Al Gore to reward those who make government function better and more cost-effectively. The team worked on creating the Inventors Assistance Center (Patent Assistance Center at the time), which answers the public’s general patent policy and procedure questions.
He was also given four Medal Awards from the Department of Commerce. In 2011, when he was in private practice, he was listed in the Legal 500 as a top IP lawyer.
In addition, he serves as an expert witness and has recorded an on-demand TV series for Bloomberg, resulting in over 13 episodes about patent office practice and procedure shot at the offices of Sughrue, Mion.
At that time, Levy commuted to Washington from a home in Florida, and, as it would for anyone, the breakneck pace became difficult to keep up. Though he will assist on a lot of matters where his USPTO background will allow him insight, including patent appeals, ex parte re-examinations, and post-grant proceedings, Levy will continue to split his time between his Florida home and the Price Heneveld offices off of Cascade.
Comments Levy, “I have a good ability to size up an application, go through it and find out what is patentable, and what’s needed for patentability.”
He does not preclude buying another home in West Michigan — “I really do like it here, and it is very relaxing,” he says. But at the same time Levy has a great deal he wants to do with his leisure time. “I love bicycling, and I’m also a Bible historian,” he says, noting that many family members still reside in Israel and that he still performs the “mitzvahs” or charitable deeds that are at the heart of Judaism. “When I’m in Florida I do Bible study just about every day — even when I’m here. It’s just something I really enjoy a lot.”
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