Kazuyuki Nakai

Kazuyuki Nakai is a highly experienced Japanese Patent Attorney and intellectual property specialist. Mr. Nakai’s experience includes all aspects of intellectual property law, including patent and trademark portfolio management.  Prior to joining Maier & Maier, Mr. Nakai served as in-house counsel and intellectual property manager for a multi-national corporation. In his prior roles, Mr. Nakai has been in charge of administration of patent and trademark rights, developing strong intellectual property positions, soliciting new inventions for protection and commercialization, intellectual property training and coordination with engineers and business units, as well as preparing intellectual property related reports, opinions, and searches. Before entering the intellectual property field, Mr. Nakai worked as a sound engineer in the United States and Japan.

Mr. Nakai is a Japanese Patent Attorney and he obtained his Bachelor of Economics degree from Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan.


Surinder (Sach) Sachar

Surinder (Sach) Sachar is a partner and electrical technology patent attorney.

A former Patent Examiner with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Mr. Sachar handles patents from application through prosecution and has extensive experience in all aspects of patent prosecution, including bringing cases before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB).

An electrical engineer by training, he has worked with high-technology inventions, including high-density optical recording devices and systems, semiconductors, displays, medical instruments, ultrasound devices, mobile communications systems, computers, TVs, consumer electronics, image forming equipment, and telecommunications devices.

For the past 33 years, Mr. Sachar has represented several leading global electronics companies headquartered in Japan helping to protect the intellectual property portfolios of their diverse technologies.

Mr. Sachar also offers opinions and counsels clients on the full range of patent issues, including the interplay of patents, methods to garner strategic and broad patent portfolio protection, and how to avoid infringement of competitor patents. With experience at the USPTO, where he specialized in the fields of magnetic and optical recording systems, Mr. Sachar understands its inner workings and possesses the depth of knowledge, experience, and success to craft the broadest enforceable patents to serve his clients’ business needs.


Michael R. Casey, Ph.D.

Michael R. Casey, Ph.D., is a partner with more than 25 years of experience in patent law including patent litigation, patent prosecution, post grant proceedings, and patent interferences. His practice focuses on all aspects of computer hardware and software, as well as circuit design and telecommunications.

Dr. Casey is experienced representing and counseling electronics and computer-technology clients — both foreign and domestic — on intellectual property law and related issues, including procurement, valuation, licensing and enforcement of intellectual property. His representations include patent litigations before a number of Federal District Courts; appellate arguments before the Federal Circuit; International Arbitrations; post-grant proceedings (including IPRs and CBMs); preparation of patent opinions relating to invalidity, non-infringement, and product clearances; patent preparation and prosecution (U.S. and foreign); and patent interferences.

Dr. Casey earned advanced degrees based on his research in Electrical and/or Computer Engineering, and is a co-author on numerous papers in the areas of distributed, heterogeneous, and mobile computing systems and operating system designs.

Dr. Casey’s technical background covers a variety computer-related technologies and medical device equipment. In the computer field, Dr. Casey’s experience includes circuit design (including parallel processing architectures and field programmable gate arrays); computational intelligence systems (including artificial intelligence (AI), neural networks, bioinformatics, and fuzzy logic), encryption software and applications (including blockchain, digital rights management (DRM) and PKI), computer networking software, hardware and algorithms, electronic commerce, computer graphics and animation, communications algorithms and hardware, and programming languages and methodologies. In the medical device field, Dr. Casey has represented clients in the fields of IV pumps and catheters for guidewires.


Patrick G. Wamsley

Patrick Wamsley is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of patent prosecution. Prior to becoming a patent attorney, Patrick worked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a patent examiner. Patrick specialized in analog to digital converters, data compression, decoders, encoders, filters, serial to parallel converters, and sigma-delta modulators.


Ryan Thompson

Ryan Thompson is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of patent prosecution, including utility and design patent drafting and prosecution, patent searches, and freedom-to-operate or infringement opinions. Ryan has worked across a variety of technology areas including mechanical devices, IoT systems, software, electrical monitoring or sensor systems, and medical device technologies.

Ryan studied Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, where his studies focused on electronic device design, computer architecture, and integrated circuit technologies. During his time at university Ryan also worked for an engineering company gaining experience in designing and testing electro-mechanical relays. Ryan’s experience includes working with teams to design and test relays, IoT systems, and other hardware systems. While at GW Law Ryan was a part of the Journal for Energy and Environmental law as well as part of the GW Mock Trial Skills board.


H. James Voeller

Jim Voeller is a registered patent attorney with over 15 years of Intellectual Property law and patent procurement experience. His technical expertise is in chemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.

Jim’s experience includes drafting and prosecuting hundreds of US and PCT patent applications in a broad range of subject areas, conducting appeals and post-grant proceedings before the PTAB, preparing validity and infringement opinion reports, counseling clients, and providing litigation support in patent infringement matters. He has also managed and instructed non-U.S. based law firms and associates in matters related to PCT patent prosecution.

Prior to becoming a patent attorney, Jim was a Research Associate at the National Institutes of Health and at the Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center where he conducted research into the cellular, molecular, and genetic mechanisms of human prostate cancer. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and presented at international meetings.

Jim received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from James Madison University, a Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Maryland, and a Juris Doctor degree from George Mason University – Antonin Scalia Law School. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the District of Columbia.


Lin Chen

Lin Chen is Associate with Maier and Maier. Prior to joining the firm, she had been a Chinese Patent Examiner for ten years in the Patent Examination Cooperation (Beijing) Center of the Patent Office, National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC (CNIPA formerly SIPO). During her patent examining experience, she conducted over 600 patents’ prior art search and sent out more than 1800 patent office actions for the patent applications in the area of optoelectronic functional materials (including photosensitive materials, light-emitting materials, liquid crystal materials, organic/inorganic semiconductor materials, etc.) and thin-film semi-conductor devices (including LED, LCD, and thin-film solar cells, etc.) thereof, chemistry, biochemistry and pharmaceutical. She also completed almost 100 international search reports for international patent applications (PCT applications).

Lin Chen received her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Law double degree from the Beijing Normal University, where she majored in Applied Chemistry and completed a minor in Law. Then she earned her Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry & Physics from the Peking University, and her LL.M in Intellectual Property from the George Washington University Law School.


Lin Chen

Lin Chen is a technical specialist for Maier and Maier. Prior to joining the firm, she had been a Chinese Patent Examiner for ten years in the Patent Examination Cooperation (Beijing) Center of the Patent Office, National Intellectual Property Administration, PRC (CNIPA formerly SIPO). During her patent examining experience, she conducted over 600 patents’ prior art search and sent out more than 1800 patent office actions for the patent applications in the area of optoelectronic functional materials (including photosensitive materials, light-emitting materials, liquid crystal materials, organic/inorganic semiconductor materials, etc.) and thin-film semi-conductor devices (including LED, LCD, and thin-film solar cells, etc.) thereof, chemistry, biochemistry and pharmaceutical. She also completed almost 100 international search reports for international patent applications (PCT applications).

Lin Chen received her Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Law double degree from the Beijing Normal University, where she majored in Applied Chemistry and completed a minor in Law. Then she earned her Ph.D. in Polymer Chemistry & Physics from the Peking University, and her LL.M in Intellectual Property from the George Washington University Law School.


Max Kaganov

Max Kaganov is the Office Representative for our Miami office.  Mr. Kaganov is a registered patent attorney and practices all aspects of intellectual property law, including utility patent and design patent drafting and prosecution, freedom-to-operate and infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution, oppositions, and cancellations. Max’s utility patent experience spans a variety of arts, such as mechanical engineering, medical devices, RFID devices and the manufacture thereof, wind turbines, as well as batch production, electrical, and software technologies. A particular focus of Max’s practice is the drafting and prosecution of design patents.

Max received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, where he majored in chemistry with a focus on physical chemistry and materials science. He obtained his Juris Doctor, in the patent law specialty track, from George Mason University School of Law. A native speaker of Russian and proficient in Spanish, Max has obtained  patent protection in the United States for Eastern European and Latin American clients. Max is registered to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Virginia State Bar, and the Florida Bar.


Michael Youssef

Michael Youssef is an electrical and computer engineer with a Bachelor of Science degree from Rutgers University, where he studied the latest improvements in fields such as artificial intelligence, automation, analog and digital circuit design, and digital signal processing. He has applied these skills in various projects throughout his academic career. Michael has experience working with a team on intricate projects, including both software and hardware design.

Michael is currently a registered patent agent as well as a student at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, where he is a J.D. candidate.