Daniel Kloke

Daniel is an electrical engineer patent attorney with 22 years of experience and deep technical expertise. He started his legal career as a litigator in San Francisco, handling cases involving copyrights, trade secrets, insurance, and contracts. Daniel has been working to build IP portfolios and patent preparation that capture market share for more than 17 years.

Daniel works very well with engineers, technologists, and executives to build strategic intellectual property portfolios to further business objectives, protect innovations, and defend market share. In addition to copyrights, trademarks, and patent prosecution, Daniel assists his clients with contract formation (e.g., technology transactions), licensing, and open source.Daniel successfully defended Palm, Inc., Via Technologies, and multiple startups in class action and patent litigation.

Daniel has filed over thirty ex parte reexaminations and assisted in inter partes reviews.

Daniel has assisted his startup clients as operating as GC (general counsel) when needed.

The following are a few accomplishments:

Prepared and prosecuted patent portfolio of security startup that was acquired in excess of $1 Billion.

• Prepared and prosecuted patent portfolio of OpsWare, a network provisioning/configuration company and represented that company in acquisition by HP in excess of $1.6 Billion.
• Prepared and implemented entire IP strategy and patent portfolio for Ayasdi, a big data analytics company specializing in topological data analysis valued at $400 million.
• Counseled IP, licensing, open source, and corporate strategies for startup and Fortune 100 companies including automobile manufacturers, networking companies, transportation brokers, wearables, renewable energy farm/legacy electrical network performance companies, data analytics, and machine learning companies.
• Created IP strategy and IP portfolio for network analytics and performance company valued at $600 million.
• Prepared patent valuation and litigation strategies for mid and large companies regarding security, application/smartphone technologies, and satellite communications.
• Successfully co-defended startup specializing in posture and ergonomics within two separate patent lawsuits (full defense).
• Successfully overcame invalidity challenges in ex parte reexamination on behalf of media patent owner initiated by the US Government.

Machine Learning, AI, and Data Analytics:

Daniel assists a significant number of clients with ML, AI, and data analytic innovations. The US Patent Office has long challenged many innovations in these fields as being obscure or not patentable. The result has been slow, expensive examination at the Patent Office with considerable uncertainty whether the inventions will be found ultimately patentable.

Special handling:

Patent preparation for these types of innovations require specific approaches to navigate through the US Patent Office to get to a patent allowance that captures the inventions within a reasonable time frame. Patent applications that relate to ML, AI, and data analytics (e.g., including applications of neural networks, random forests, or topological data analysis approaches) require in the patent applications additional detail regarding the underlying mathematics, feature processing, and the overall data pipeline.

In determining what to patent, many companies err in attempting to patent a particular model or an AI mechanism (e.g., the neural network itself). It is often wise to consider protecting the market value of the process. For example, a patent application may protect how a particular question is solved or the process in which intake, data processing, and application to AI modalities generates models (as well as the application of those models).

We have extensive experience in working with engineers, mathematicians, product executives, and technologists to discuss these technologies in depth, prepare patent applications with the proper scope, and work with Examiners to navigate the examination process.

Result:

Through claiming the value and scope of innovation(s) as well as providing in-depth details of the underlying ML, AI, and data analytic processes, we are often able to obtain valuable IP for our clients at a reasonable time frame. Through these processes, we create IP portfolios that enable our clients to exclusively own the tools that create market value, deter competitors, and increase value.

Licenses:

United States Patent and Trademark Office (authorized to write and prosecute patents in all 50 states)
California Bar
Texas Bar
Federal District Courts of California – Northern, Southern, Central, & Eastern
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit