Michael J. Scheer

Mr. Scheer was born and raised in Chappaqua, New York. 

He received degrees in Physics from the State University of New York at Oneonta and in Electrical Computer Engineering from Clarkson University. 

Upon graduating from Clarkson, Mr. Scheer began his engineering career working on the Hubble Telescope at The Perkin-Elmer Corporation in Danbury Connecticut.  He was responsible for the design and coding of microcomputer based data collection and analysis systems for both in-air and thermal vacuum test facilities.  When the assembly of the telescope in Danbury was complete, he moved to Sunnyvale California for final integration of the Hubble at Lockheed Corporation with other contractors including the European Space Agency and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the direction of the NASA team from the Marshall Space Flight Center.  He represented Perkin-Elmer in the design and execution of system level tests until the unfortunate Space Shuttle Challenger accident.  With the launch of the Hubble on indefinite hold, he accepted a staff position at IBM supporting satellite command and control systems on various Department of Defense contracts.

Mr. Scheer began law school at Santa Clara University School of Law and transferred to The National Law Center at The George Washington University when he was accepted into IBM’s prestigious Intellectual Property Law Training Program in Crystal City Virginia.  Under the guidance of senior counsel at IBM he learned patent prosecution, conducted PTO appeals and Examiner interviews, and was  trained to manage an IP legal department supporting multi-billion dollar operating units.  After graduation from law school, he supported IBM’s mainframe division in Kingston New York.

Mr. Scheer entered private practice in 1992, joining the IP boutique firm Darby & Darby where he continued his transactional practice and began litigating patent, trademark and unfair competition actions in Federal Court.  Offered the opportunity to begin an IP group at a general practice firm, he joined Hughes Hubbard & Reed in lower Manhattan where he continued litigating and prosecuting patent matters as well as conducting IP due diligence in support of significant M&A efforts.  In 1996, he was recruited to help manage the patent portfolio of a private inventor in Las Vegas Nevada.  Returning to New York he joined the IP boutique of Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen where he became partner.  After merger talks for the entire firm failed, Mr. Scheer and several of his partners joined the general practice firm Dickstein Shapiro where he managed the transactional practice in both the New York and Los Angeles offices.  After more than a decade with Dickstein, he made the difficult decision to move his practice to Winston & Strawn.  At Winston he continued litigating and prosecuting patents, and after the passage of the America Invents Act, started the Inter Partes Review practice at the firm.

With more than two decades of intellectual property experience, Mr. Scheer, a seasoned and highly accomplished lawyer and leader, opened The Law Office of Michael J. Scheer in November of 2016 in order to concentrate on his Inter Partes Review practice.