Wesley L. Austin

—MANAGING SHAREHOLDER

Wesley L. Austin graduated summa cum laude from Utah State University in electrical engineering in 1993 with a minor in computer science. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree, Wes worked for Motorola, Inc. as an engineer where he was heavily involved in digital signal processing, wireless communications, secure telecommunications, cryptography and embedded systems. While at Motorola, his digital signal processing experience included adaptive filters, echo cancellation techniques and vocoders.

Wes attended law school at the University of Utah and obtained his J.D. degree in 1998. He graduated in the top 20% of his class and was named a William H. Leary Scholar. Wes was a judicial intern for the Honorable Judge Dee Benson at the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Following law school and prior to joining his present firm, Wes worked for the law firm of Parsons Behle & Latimer and as in-house intellectual property counsel for emWare, Inc., an embedded systems software company, which was acquired by Panasonic. Wes has been with his current law firm since 2002.

Wes has been admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Supreme Court of Utah, the United States District Court for the District of Utah, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Wes’ publications and presentations include “A Thoughtful and Practical Analysis of Database Protection Under Copyright Law, and a Critique of Sui Generis Protection,” 3 Journal of Technology Law & Policy 1 (Fall 1997); 30 World Jurist Association Law/Technology Journal No. 2, 1 (1997); “Software Patents,” 7 Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal No. 2, 225 (1999); “Claim Construction After Phillips v. AWH,” Seminar Teacher (2005); “Patent Drafting in view of Phillips v. AWH,” Seminar Teacher (2006); “Bilski and the Future of Patentable Subject Matter,” Seminar Teacher (2009).

Wes was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2012 by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Utah State University. Wes currently serves on the Industry Advisory Committee of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, where he’s been a committee member since 2008.

Wesley Austin’s practice focuses on patent portfolio development and strategic counseling in the electrical and computer-related arts, with particular expertise on wireless communication technologies, embedded systems, consumer electronics and computer-related hardware and software technologies. Wes manages a number of the firm’s major technology clients, including several Fortune 500/Global 500 companies.

In addition to considerable experience with drafting and prosecuting patent applications, Wes also assists clients with analyzing competitors’ patents, designing around such patents, and preparing opinions regarding patent validity, infringement and unenforceability.