Bill Ashley began as a patent engineer in 2001, and became a registered patent agent in 2002. In January of 2006, Bill obtained his Juris Doctor from William Mitchell College of Law. His practice focuses on U.S. and international patent procurement and offensive patent analysis, and encompasses a range of technologies, including: telecommunications, computer architectures, software, medical devices, fuel cell technology, sensors, RFID devices, gaming, mechanical, and design patents.

Licensed to practice law in Minnesota
Licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

Education

B.S., summa cum laude, Mechanical Engineering, Arizona State University
J.D., magna cum laude, William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota

Industry Experience

Bill has over ten years experience as a mechanical design engineer, field engineer, and software developer. As a mechanical engineer, he was a designer of mobile army radar ground stations at Motorola in Scottsdale, Arizona. As a software developer, Bill wrote C++ software for Solaris-based army radar systems at Motorola, and later developed C++ and Java programs for Irix-based satellite imagery systems at Aerojet Inc. in Boulder, Colorado. Bill continues to be active in software development and computer administration, acting as information technology manager for the firm and has developed small Windows-based macros and applications for legal use within the firm.

Technical Experience

Bill has particular expertise in:

• Computer networking
  • Universal Plug and Play
  • Network Address Translation
  • Session Initiation Protocol
  • Web Services (SOAP, XML-RPC)
  • Industrial/Automotive Controller Area Networking

• User applications and interfaces
  • Context based advertising in mobile devices
  • Peer-to-peer content and document sharing
  • Social networking
  • Personal navigation devices

• Computer software architecture
  • Java Runtime Environments
  • Interprocess communications

• Software development
  • User Interface Design (Motif/X, Win32, Java)
  • Digital Mapping
  • Tomcat Web Application Design using Java Servlets
  • Linux and Windows System Administration

Professional Activities

Bill is a member of the American Intellectual Properly Law Association (AIPLA) and the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA).  He is also involved in pro bono and community activities.