As a budding engineer, Tino discovered a startling truth: real engineering can be very hard. You just can’t argue with the laws of nature. And so, Tino switched to something easier: arguing instead about laws passed by Congress, especially patent laws.

 

In the decades since, Tino has learned to blend his broad knowledge in the sciences with pointed rhetoric to find vulnerabilities in the Patent Office’s reasoning. He has done so both before patent examiners and, when faced with a particularly tenacious examiner, before the Board of Patent Appeals.

 

In doing so, Tino has shepherded through the Patent Office applications across a broad gamut of subject matter. Some of these, such as software and business method patents, have been at the ragged edge where patentable subject matter dissolves into non-patentable abstract ideas. Others have been in the more traditional areas of technology, namely those that a time traveler from the last century would find familiar. These include electrical and mechanical devices as well as devices that combine features of both, i.e., electromechanical devices.

 

Outside of work, and also outside of those hours at which neighbors might complain, Tino likes to play trumpet. The rest of the time, he likes quieter activities, like reading widely, sometimes even on a stationary bike, at least if the subject matter is light enough.