Ernest J. Beffel, Jr.

is a co-founder of Haynes Beffel & Wolfeld, LLP.

Practice examples include preparation and prosecution of patent applications, particularly in technologies related to computer-implemented business methods, computer programs, computer architectures, digital circuitry and IC manufacturing; management of patent portfolio; preparation of opinions on infringement and validity of patents; pre-litigation analysis and resolution of licensing issues; technology transfer; due diligence in connection with mergers and acquisitions; and counseling on IP strategies. Mr. Beffel holds a peer-review rating at Martindale-Hubbell of AV-Preeminent.

Prepared and prosecuted patent applications directed to financial planning, inventory management, on-line auctions, banking and infrastructure for business-to-business ecommerce; for targeted advertising, query context and disambiguation,  and text and non-text search engines; for cloud computing, Web Services protocols, mobile to desktop synchronization, and video on-demand; for network protocols, adapters, access points and switches; for compression, error correction and signal processing; for automated testing of network components and telecommunications; for IC manufacturing, including design, processes and instrumentation of manufacturing, and capital equipment for ICC production.

Prior to his patent counseling and prosecution, Mr. Beffel devoted 18 years to trial practice, handling technology disputes involving patents, engineering design, contracts, construction delay and failure, and environmental clean-up, with approximately nine months in-trial time. He also handled insurance coverage and bad faith, wrongful discharge, and racial discrimination cases.

Sample financial services client (AE application): professors emeritus who reformulated problem of portfolio management over decades, overcoming curse of dimensionality and producing an asset allocation plan that covers alternative courses of market behavior.

Sample applied science client: self-trained Swedish optical physicist, who won 2008 Swedish inventor of the year and 2001 SEMI Award for breakthrough work on laser pattern generation technology, which is used to pattern circuits on flat panel displays and ICs; who also was the first foreign recipient of the North American SEMI Award.

Mr. Beffel is a 1981 graduate of Stanford Law School, and a 1978 graduate, with highest honors, of the University of Michigan, College of Engineering (IE+OR).

He gives an annual lecture to foreign officers attending the National Defense University (ISMO program) on the role of patents in capital formation for startups, during their trip to Silicon and Napa Valleys.

In July 2009, he was invited to speak at the PTO’s Business Methods Partnership meeting on “Interviews for Compact Prosecution.”

When Ernie is not in the office or on the phone with an Examiner, he can be found sailboat racing on San Francisco Bay or representing the Sea Scouts. Ernie loves the water and collecting high-tech gadgets. His EE colleagues consider him the firm geek.