I established Stone Creek (stonecreek.us) and became a member of the patent bar in 2009. Since then I have successfully written, filed, and prosecuted U.S. and PCT patent applications for clients in consumer electronics, apparel, and green technology sectors. As a business strategy consultant, starting in 2006, I wrote strategic and product development plans for funded startups and oversaw intellectual property for mid-sized companies. Key Accomplishments:-- Wrote, filed, and prosecuted over 75 patent applications, including apparel and consumer electronics.-- Performed over 50 patent searches with analysis and clear legal opinions.-- Successfully participated in U.S. Patent Office accelerated patent application initiatives, including 12-month Accelerated Examination, Track I, Petition to Make Special for Age, and Green Technology Pilot Program.-- Successfully drafted, filed, and prosecuted sophisticated design patent suites for apparel industry client.-- Initiated a patent incentive program for the Stanton Group establishing goals, metrics, incentives, budget, and training resulting in a six-times increase in company-wide patent filings.-- Performed litigation research, freedom to operate, and validity searches for outside legal counsel.-- Created business, financial, and marketing plan for multi-million dollar music industry start-up.Authored strategic plans and competitive analysis for incubator start-up.

Oversaw new product development, intellectual property, product management, quality assurance, manufacturing engineering, overseas manufacturer relationships, and customer service for $20 million consumer electronics product line.Key Accomplishments:-- Built the engineering department from the ground up, which included research and development, manufacturing engineering, quality assurance, and intellectual property development.-- Created and oversaw an intellectual property and patent program for all three Stanton Group companies.-- Directed drafting and prosecution of utility patents and design patents with outside council.-- Managed and evaluated acquisition and licensing of outside intellectual property.-- Successfully directed 17 simultaneous development programs from concept to market in 18 months by using strong interpersonal skills and collaborating closely with all stakeholders.-- Created and managed regulatory compliance program including FCC, CE, and UL/ETL. -- Led creation of a new product line from concept to completion in 14 months featuring industry best-of-class audio performance that rivaled products costing two to four times as much.-- Developed a quality assurance program that transformed product defect rate from 100% to 0% in less than six months and service return rate from 15% to 0.5% in two years.-- Created and managed, within budget targets, a combined operating/capital budget of $1.5 million.-- Advised CEO for technical matters relating to strategic partnerships and acquisitions.-- Established brand-wide quality control procedures and product development processes.-- Successfully negotiated development contracts and royalty agreements with manufacturers and developers.-- Established market research analytics and focus groups for the product management department.

Served as factory applications engineer supporting Cirrus Logic audio chips in notebook and desktop personal computers. This senior level technical position was equivalent to a first-line manager.Key Accomplishments: --Provided high-level engineering support for tier-one computer manufacturer’s engineering staff, including Dell, Gateway, Compaq, Intel, and IBM. Some projects worth 1,000,000+ chip volumes.-- Reduced turn-around from 3-days to 24-hours on complex technical evaluations for tier-one manufacturers.--Created collateral technical/marketing material: reference designs, application notes, datasheets, whitepapers, and trade magazine articles.

Design and systems engineer for RFID product development group. Key Accomplishments: -- Took lead role in regulatory compliance (FCC, CE, and UL) for entire RFID engineering department. -- Co-developed a company-wide measurement standard for Human Exposure to radio frequency emissions.-- Took a lead role in the evaluation of technical design tools for the entire organization. -- Design engineer on various RFID products including an access control system for the summer Olympics.

Worked six years as project leader and lead engineer on several key professional audio development projects. Just six months out of college, assumed a leadership role of a major development project.Key Accomplishments: -- Managed all aspects of projects, including proposals, engineering development, project schedules, cost control, regulatory compliance, and manufacturability. Fostered an atmosphere of communication and trust between departments that overcame obstacles and drove projects to successful completion.-- Co-organized a “design for manufacturability” (DFMA) program that resulted in a 72% assembly count reduction, significant decrease in test/assembly time, and a significant increase in product quality.-- Successfully lead joint development effort between Sony, Japan and the Sony, United States. This highly successful product exceeded product life cycle and revenue goals.-- Worked seven months in Japan learning Sony-style project management and team leadership.-- Invented and/or co-invented 14 U.S. patents and 3 foreign patents assigned to Sony.