Michael D. Van Loy, PhD

Michael is a skilled patent attorney and technology protection strategist. He works with both growing and established companies to create, manage, and improve patent portfolios both domestically and internationally with a keen focus on enforceability and business value. He combines a deep and broad technical background with extensive experience developing innovative legal strategies to address patentability challenges involving the mechanical arts, materials science, and computer-implemented technologies (including inhaler technologies, database management, manufacturing techniques, process control, data analytics, etc.), as well as the increasingly commercially important intersection of software and other technical fields such as drug delivery and other medical devices, analytical and sensing systems, transportation, manufacturing, and consumer products.  He also advises on business-critical IP due diligence issues, patent portfolio valuation, and licensing agreements. 

Clients rely on Michael’s extensive experience, accumulated over 18 years of legal practice, to navigate the nuances of patent procurement and enforcement in Europe and Asia in addition to the United States.  His skills in mining existing patent assets to enhance their value and in designing and implementing programs for protecting ongoing innovations are highly sought after by cutting edge technology companies.

• Santa Clara University (JD)
• University of California - Berkeley (PhD, Civil & Environmental Engineering)
• University of California - Berkeley (MS, Civil & Environmental Engineering)
• University of California - Berkeley (BS, Chemistry)

• Michael leads the Mintz team responsible for development and management of the worldwide patent portfolio protecting current and future products of a market leading e-cigarette manufacturer.  He applies innovative asset development strategies to leverage existing disclosures and on-going utility and design filings as part of an integrated, global strategy to interdict copycat products with a view toward market share protection and regulatory compliance.
• Michael co-manages a sizable portfolio for a market-leading German developer of database and business software products, and collaborates with other Mintz attorneys to develop and apply effective strategies for addressing the ever-changing patentability landscape for software-based inventions.
• Michael also co-manages the Mintz team that designs and implements a US and foreign patent program for one of the world's largest credit rating agencies, which is also a leader in fraud detection and other financial risk mitigation technology. The Mintz team has tailored the company's portfolio and filing strategies with a particular focus on jurisdiction and subject matter analysis to maximize the value of the company’s legal spend while securing protection in the markets where the company is most likely to achieve grant of valuable, enforceable assets.

• Best Lawyers in America: Patent Law (2021)
• Included on the San Diego Super Lawyers Rising Star: Intellectual Property list (2016)