HSML Announcements
Ralph W. Beha named Special Counsel to the Firm
We are pleased and excited to announce that Ralph W. Beha has been named as the first Special Counsel to the firm. Mr. Beha comes to the firm with a wealth of experience in commercial, transactional, corporate counseling, and high-technology legal services. He also brings a strong international background to his work, from his roots as a native German speaker to his language and area studies in China, East Asia and Europe.
Previously, Mr. Beha has served as General Counsel of Control Data Systems, Inc. and Asia Region Counsel of the mainframe computer manufacturer Control Data Corporation, as well as Vice President – Law and Corporate Secretary of Carlson Companies, a Twin Cities-based travel, hospitality, marketing and cruise conglomerate. Most recently, Mr. Beha was a partner in a Miami, Florida maritime and insurance defense law firm.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Mr. Beha went out east for college, law school and a New York law practice. He came to Minnesota in the early 1980s, and traveled extensively in China, Japan, Korea, and South Asia licensing technologies and supporting mainframe computer system sales throughout the region. During that time he also taught Asian Political Economy and International Business Law in the University of St. Thomas MBA program for ten years.
Mr. Beha has been involved in the Twin Cities community, serving on the Minnesota District Export Council, and the boards of the Midwest China Center and the Inner City Tennis Foundation. Mr. Beha enjoys playing league tennis, cooking dinners for his wife (children’s author Eileen Beha) and friends at their home in South Minneapolis, and traveling to visit his children in New York, Washington and England. Usually a fair-weather distance cyclist, Mr. Beha has participated in Minnesota’s Ironman Bike Ride for the past 15 years.
We are looking forward to engaging Mr. Beha in the commercial and transactional work of the firm’s clients. Mr. Beha’s record of service in representing and counseling his clients positions him well to address the growing commercial and transactional needs of the firm’s clients, and we are excited about the prospects of expanding our client service offerings with Mr. Beha’s expertise and experience.
HSML Attorney Doug Mueller Named to 2011 Minnesota Super Lawyers List
Partner Doug Mueller is currently listed among the 2011 Minnesota Super Lawyers, which features the top attorneys in the state. Mr. Mueller has been named to this list in 2008 to 2011. The 2011 Minnesota Super Lawyers list will be appearing on the web at www.superlawyers.com.
HSML is the Hennepin County Bar Association’s 2011 Diversity Award Recipient
On May 17, 2011 the Hennepin County Bar Association presented HSML with the 2011 Diversity Award for a Legal Employer. The mission of the HCBA is to serve the needs of a diverse membership by advancing collegiality, professionalism, ethical conduct, and competence in the legal profession. The criteria used by the Diversity Committee included a firm’s commitment to attracting, recruiting, and retaining a qualified, diverse workforce from varied ethnic, racial, gender, and cultural backgrounds. The Committee noted that eight of our thirteen attorneys and engineers are of diverse Asian backgrounds, and that this year we announced the promotion of our first partner (a Chinese-American lawyer) since we were founded. We are honored to receive this award, and are committed to maintaining diversity as one of our core values.
If you would like to view the press release from the Hennepin County Bar Association, please click the following link. Hennepin County Bar Association Website
Japan Relief - American Red Cross
The earthquake and resulting tsunami that struck Japan on March 11th is having a devastating effect on the lives of millions of people in Japan. The number of deaths, injuries, and missing people is high, and untold numbers of people have been forced out of their homes. Millions of people are monitoring the nuclear power plant situation on a daily basis, concerned for the safety of their families and friends. The need for funding and other relief assistance is great.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those who were affected by this disaster. Our firm and employees will be making a donation to the American Red Cross Japan relief effort, and we encourage others to do the same. For those who wish to contribute to the relief effort, the link to the American Red Cross is
American Red Cross
HSML Receives Award...
HSML was recently notified by the Awards staff of Corporate International magazine www.corp-intl.com that it was chosen as the 2010 “Patents Law Firm of the Year in Minnesota”. The Awards staff did its own investigation, but in applying for the award, HSML submitted information like the following.
The total number of patent applications and trademark applications which HSML filed in 2010; the number of patent investigations, trademark investigations, and the detailed opinions communicated to clients based on these investigations; the number of patent searches, trademark searches, and the opinion letters sent to clients; and, the number of trademark oppositions filed in 2010. This was a statistics summary of an impressive body of work, but it was emphasized that it was only representative as HSML is a full service international IP law firm.
The Awards staff was informed that HSML represents many domestic clients including several subsidiary companies of Cummins Inc.; DataCard Corp.; Lockheed Martin Corp.; Silberline Manufacturing Co.; Halo Industries Inc.; FasTest Inc.; and Hardcore Computer Inc. Additionally, HSML represents many foreign clients including several subsidiary companies of Panasonic Corp.; Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.; Rohm Co.; Nippon Sheet Glass Co; Capcom Co.; Milbon Co.; Fancl Corp.; Daihen Corp.; Shanghai Stock Exchange; Shanghai Maglev Transportation Engineering R&D Center; De’ Longhi Appliances S.R.L.; Danieli & C. Officine Meccanidre SPA; SNPE Materiaux Energetiques; and Commissariat A L’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives. Also, HSML does work for individual inventors and start-up situations and in 2010 wrote several patent applications for this type of client, e.g., for an exceedingly innovative e-learning technology, for a very exciting medical disease prediction model, etc.
Information on the firm was given, such as, HSML has 5 partners, 6 associates, 2 staff scientists, and 6 paralegals. The people of HSML have mother-tongue language skills in Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, a Hindi dialect, and Spanish so that within HSML, there is not only substantial understanding of IP laws in many countries, but also substantial understanding of languages and cultures. It was indicated that our attorneys focus on obtaining, licensing, investigating and enforcing IP rights in Asia and worldwide and spend substantial amounts of time in Asia on behalf of our clients. We work closely with our extensive and long established network of local law firms and agencies in Asia and elsewhere.
Bryan A. Wong - Partner of the firm effective January 1, 2011
We are pleased to announce the promotion of Bryan A. Wong to Partner of the firm effective January 1, 2011. Mr. Wong joined HSML when the firm opened its doors in April 2005, and exemplifies the depth of the firm’s Asian IP practice with his cultural understanding, language capability, and technical experience, particularly in the mechanical, chemical and biomechanical arts.
Bryan, a native Minnesotan, is very family oriented. He and his wife, Kimberly, were married in Vienna, Austria in 2007. They welcomed their first child, Lewis, into the world on August 22, 2009. The family resides in Minneapolis.
Travel is Bryan’s passion (has visited most of China and has traveled extensively throughout Europe), he is an avid cook and wine enthusiast, and keeps a healthy mind and body through running, basketball, and boxing (also is a boxing trainer).
Bryan has a strong sense of “making a difference” and is involved in numerous organizations:
Board Director and Treasurer for the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) -- national association of Asian Pacific American (APA) attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students which provides a national network for its members and affiliates.
Board Director and Treasurer for Kulture Klub Collaborative -- engages art and artistic practice to provide enriching opportunities for youth experiencing homelessness, and artists to grow individually and to transform community.
Active member and Mentor for Diversity in Practice -- promotes attorneys of color to help them develop professionally and personally.
Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA) -- promotes the development of intellectual property law and enhances the professionalism of its members.
We appreciate the hard work and contributions made by Bryan over the years. He works diligently on behalf of the firm’s clients, mentors the firm’s younger attorneys and engineers, assists with and is active in firm administration and management, and is a vital member of the community. Congratulations, Bryan!
HSML Attorneys in transfer of Popular Web Site for Multi Million Dollar Sum
A team of HSML attorneys helped to negotiate the transfer of ownership of a popularly named website from one party to another for a multi-million dollar sum. The HSML attorneys drafted the agreement which was used to memorialize the ownership transfer, and the HSML attorneys handled the procedural execution of the transfer of money and of the control of the web site. The entire process took about a week.
HSML New Team Members
Ms. Sarah Voeller joins HSML as an associate attorney. Sarah has her B.S. in Biology from Boston College and has a J.D. degree from the William Mitchell College of Law. Sarah is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is admitted to the Minnesota State Bar. As a member of the firm’s Trademark Team, Sarah's practice focuses on international trademark prosecution, trademark searches, availability and registrability opinions, infringement opinions, acquisitions, licensing, business branding strategies and enforcement of trademark rights. Sarah also handles general patent prosecution matters.
Dr. Yufeng Dong joins HSML as a patent engineer. Yufeng has a Ph.D. in Solid State Physics from the National University of Singapore. Yufeng works with a variety of technologies including electrical, electro-/bio-mechanical, semiconductors, nanoelectronics, materials science, computer engineering, optics, renewable energy and solar cells. Yufeng has a number of publications and presentations in relation to his studies. As a patent engineer at HSML, Yufeng's practice focuses on domestic and international patent prosecution, drafting patent applications and assisting with patent investigations.
We also wish to welcome Ms. Yijun Ge as a law clerk intern. Yijun has her M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of California, Irvine. Yijun currently attends the University of Minnesota Law School, expecting to receive a J.D. degree in 2011. As an intern, she assists the attorneys and staff in a variety of matters.
Yufeng and Yijun are native Mandarin speakers and are fluent in spoken and written Mandarin. As members of the HSML China Team, they work with clients on a variety of China IP issues and work closely with our China clients seeking to register, license and enforce IP rights in the US.
For more information on our newest team members, please see the Professionals page of our website. We warmly welcome Sarah, Yufeng and Yijun to the HSML team!
Wyeth v Kappos
On January 7, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision in the case of Wyeth v. Kappos (2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 300) ruling that the USPTO has been incorrectly calculating patent term adjustments (PTA) provided by 35 U.S.C. §154(b) since the year 2000.
The result of this decision is that many patents granted since the year 2000, as long as they were pending for more than 3 years, may have been entitled to increased PTA. For commercially significant patents, this could mean additional patent term.
It is not clear at this time whether the USPTO will provide retroactive adjustments to incorrectly calculated PTA on granted patents.
Please do not hesitate to contact your attorney contact at HSML if there are any questions.
HSML Selected by City of Saint Paul
The City of Saint Paul has selected HSML to be added to its panel of outside counsel for Intellectual Property. This selection by the City of Saint Paul reflects recognition of our ability as a team to provide cost-effective, quality legal services in a responsive manner. HSML serves as a role model for diversity in the legal community. Our diversity reflects the international global community in which we live and the diversity of the clients we serve.