Debunking the Myths of AIA Proceedings (RECORDING)

The Honorable Melissa A. Haapala is currently serving as Acting Deputy Chief Judge.  She was appointed as Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) on September 27, 2021. Judge Haapala was appointed as an Administrative Patent Judge on November 17, 2014 and has served as a Senior Lead Administrative Patent Judge and a Lead Administrative Patent Judge. In addition to her executive management and supervisory responsibilities, Judge Haapala has presided over numerous inter partes reviews under the America Invents Act (AIA) and heard hundreds of appeals from adverse decisions of examiners in patent applications. Prior to joining PTAB, she worked as a staff software engineer for Storage Technology, practiced at several law firms, served as Senior Counsel at Sun Microsystems, and as Assistant General Counsel at Ricoh.  Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge Haapala earned a law degree from the University of Denver College of Law, a Master of Science degree in Computer Information Systems, Management of Technology from Regis University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado. She is also the mother of three boys.

The Honorable Grace Obermann is an Administrative Patent Judge of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. Appointed to the Board in February of 2012, she has been paneled on approximately 500 trial cases involving patents in every major technical art. Judge Obermann is a former Assistant Director of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she supervised the trial attorneys that litigate patent, copyright, and trademark infringement lawsuits brought by or against the United States. During her tenure, she personally litigated scores of IP lawsuits involving everything from bombs and satellite systems to postage stamp art and insurance products. Judge Obermann holds a J.D. from George Washington University and a B.A. in Chemistry from Rutgers University. She clerked for the Honorable Raymond C. Clevenger, III, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The Honorable Michael P. Tierney serves as Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Vice Chief Judge Tierney was appointed to the PTAB on July 31, 2000 as an administrative patent judge in the Chemical Section, where he handled ex parte appeals of chemical cases. Judge Tierney joined the USPTO as a patent examiner, where he primarily examined applications for chemical compositions. Since being appointed as an administrative patent judge, Judge Tierney worked as a member of the Interference Trial Section, where he worked on interferences, reexaminations, and supervised two patent attorneys working on ex parte appeals. As part of the USPTO implementation of the America Invents Act (AIA), Judge Tierney led the PTAB’s comprehensive effort on trial rulemaking. He worked closely with USPTO executive officials, trial judges, the patent community, and other members of the public to develop the trial rules and has given numerous presentations to educate the patent community on the statutory provisions, proposed rules, and final rules for the AIA administrative trials. Prior to his appointment to the PTAB, Judge Tierney served as an associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, where his practice concentrated on patent litigation, opinions, and prosecution. Judge Tierney received both a Juris Doctor degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington.

Todd Walters is the Chair of the firm’s Patent Office Litigation practice and Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property section. He is a current Vice-Chair of the Post-Grant Practice Committee of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), a past Chair of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) Trial Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and a past Chair of the USPTO Post Grant and Inter Partes Practice Committee of the American Bar Association-Intellectual Property Law (ABA-IPL) section. Todd was named the Best Lawyers ® 2020 Patent Law “Lawyer of the Year” in Washington, D.C.