Shutter Bug: Attorney's life-long passion for photography focuses on travel, sports

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEOYUH LIN

by Sheila Pursglove
Legal News

Attorney Jeoyuh Lin’s passion for photography was launched at the age of 8 when he was given a hand-me-down 110 point-and-shoot film camera from his older brother.

“I took photos everywhere I traveled, capturing whatever was beautiful to share with others,” he says. “Photography allows one to share what one sees or perceives with the world—once captured, the photograph may be shared indefinitely.”

Honing his skills over the years, Lin taught himself photography and began shooting musicals and social events for friends and families. He also entered contests, earning honorable mentions in the Sports Illustrated 2010 HTC Sports Photography and FOTO DC Spring 2011 Cherry Blossom Festival competitions.

In 2012, he launched a website showcasing images of his travels and continued indulging his passion by shooting events for nonprofits and friends. An athlete himself, he also covered running and triathlon races as a freelance sports photographer for Brightroom Photography, Inc.

Two recent years of legal work in Japan provided new opportunities to hone his photography skills, allowing Lin to win the 2015 Chubu Trip Photo of the Month Contest in Nagoya.    

“My favorite photos tend to be travel photos of landscapes that depict the changing seasons, changing of a society, or excitement of festivals,” he says. “Japanese gardens illuminated at night were one of my favorite topics to shoot, because it’s so uniquely Japanese and so unusual in the U.S. If any photo changes one’s prior perception of a place, then I’ve done my job.”

Besides photography, while in Japan Lin worked as an in-house counsel for DENSO, an auto supplier in Nagoya, the capital of Japan’s Aichi Prefecture and a manufacturing and shipping hub in central Honshu. As the only U.S.-trained attorney with expertise in U.S. intellectual property law, he was the point person in solving a wide range of the company’s IP problems worldwide. He also trained the firm’s business and engineering teams on U.S. patent practice. 

“Both handling and teaching IP law at DENSO made me a better practitioner and made my legal practice more nuanced,” he says. “I enjoy being exposed to a company’s business concerns, such as cost-benefit analysis and long-term business planning that affects directions on which legal route to take.”

Lin moved back to the U.S. in July and joined Harness, Dickey & Pierce, PLC in its Troy office, where he continues his IP practice specializing in autonomous vehicle, medical device, and consumer electronics technologies. The camera world is never far away, however, as Lin’s practice in consumer electronics technologies include those related to digital cameras, mobile phones, 3G/4G LTE data transmission methods, LED and LCD screens, and solid-state memory.

Lin started his career path with a biomedical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins University, and drew on that technology background as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He issued patents that, at the time, were at the forefront of medical technology, including digital thermometers for the forehead, portable hand-held body fat analysis devices, and robotic surgical devices/stent placementmethods.    

He also interned with two administrative patent judges at the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

“This allowed me to understand the inner workings of ‘the black box’ most people perceive appeal courts and other judicial bodies to be,” he says. “It made me see they are fairly normal people who meet with other judges and do their best to understand and solve problems faced by inventors, lawyers, and patent examiners.”

Seeing several colleagues turning to law school, Lin headed to Catholic University Columbus School of Law, and, after graduation, spent several years as an attorney in Washington, D.C., before taking the job in Japan.

“The law is part of daily life,” he says. “Understanding it opens up my mind to a range of issues. It also corresponds with my personality as someone who likes to learn as much about the world as possible.”

A native of Taipei, Taiwan, who grew up in Old Bridge, N.J., Lin currently makes his home in Troy. In his leisure time, he enjoys salsa dancing, automobiles, traveling, arts and museums, reading about technology and history, and running, cycling, hiking, tennis, and triathlons.     


 

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