About Pat

A nationally ranked distance runner, Pat believes the best thing about running is the journey. Pat says this metaphorically extends to the patent prosecution process, a ‘marathon’ he has run successfully alongside clients many times, and to the development and growth of Dicke, Billig & Czaja, which he co-founded in 1998.

With expertise covering all aspects of patent portfolio development and management, Pat has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patents for many high value inventions. He has frequently managed and mentored other patent attorneys in this process. Pat does portfolio mining for many clients, searching for inventions to cover important products. He also has a highly successful Examiner Interview and USPTO appeal practice. Pat has significant experience with infringement, validity, clearance, and landscape investigations. He provides other IP client counseling and services, such as licensing, agreements, litigation support, and Federal Circuit Appeals.

Pat keeps abreast of the latest intellectual property law developments though his active participation in the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA). He is MIPLA's former representative to the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations.

His strong technical background allows Pat to handle numerous complex technologies, such as computer hardware and software, electronic, electrical, electro-mechanical, optical, and process technologies. Pat has significant experience protecting electrodynamic space structures, semiconductors, signal processing, telecommunication, printing, storage, and medical devices.

During his seven years as a senior design engineer at Minnesota’s Control Data Corporation and as a consultant to MIPS Corporation’s joint development team in Silicon Valley, Pat developed computer architectures for large mainframe computers and RISC processors. Pat designed ECL and CMOS integrated circuits, multichip modules, and processor boards. Pat keeps his awareness of technical advances current by remaining a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Clients and colleagues alike appreciate Pat’s breadth of knowledge and exacting eye for detail, and recognize him as a leader in the field of intellectual property law. He was the first coordinating editor and is a contributing author of the treatise Electronic and Software Patents: Law and Practice (Bloomberg BNA).  Pat has been named as a Super Lawyer by his peers for many consecutive years, and DBC clients include several companies in the upper reaches of the Fortune 500.

Pat enjoys spending time with his wife and their three children. He is also an avid reader and sports fan. In addition to running, Pat pursues outdoor activities like biking, hiking, and canoeing. In fact, Pat says his lifelong love of nature was one reason he won the Nicholas Schaps, Jr. Environmental Law Legal Writing Award while in law school.