Hon. Michael Kim

USPTO

As of September 14, 2020, Judge Kim serves as a Vice Chief Administrative Patent Judge for Operations at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Judge Kim was appointed as an Administrative Patent Judge on April 24, 2011, and as a Lead Judge in August of 2013. Prior to his appointment, Judge Kim was a patent attorney for the PTAB. In addition to his management responsibilities, which includes managing the PTAB’s ex parte appeals inventory and overseeing the Judicial Law Clerk program, Judge Kim has conducted hundreds of inter partes reviews and post-grant reviews under the America Invents Act (AIA), and reviewed over a thousand adverse decisions of examiners upon applications for patents. He works primarily in the business methods, mechanical, and electrical technology areas. Prior to joining the USPTO, Judge Kim was a patent attorney at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP. Judge Kim received his law degree from the Duke University School of Law, where he was a founding member of the Duke Law and Technology Review, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also holds concentrations in Economics, Political Science, and Writing.