News

As the next entry in "Meet the board" series, we turn to Phil Goldman BS, MS, JD, MIPLA's current MSBA representative. After nearly 40 years as an attorney (registration no. 31,162), Phil has retired from the active patent practice, and occasionally now consults with clients on their IP strategy, given his particular expertise in technology transfer and collaboration, while helping to build an IP "infrastructure" and sophistication within clients.

After an undergrad Biochemistry degree at UW Madison, and a Master's degree in Microbiology at Colorado State, he returned for a while to UW in a doctoral program in Radiation Biology, before moving to Minnesota in what became a several year quest to gain residency in order to be admitted to Minnesota vet school. During th​ose early years in Minnesota he dabbled at standup and improv comedy, to the point of becoming a member of the traveling cast at Dudley Rigg's improv theater. It was there that he first became aware of patent law, when the cast performed at a holiday show for what was then the Minnesota Patent Law Association. One short year later, after beginning evening law school and being tapped for a clerkship by 3M's patent department, he found himself on the other side of the stage, so to speak. Though he has kept the comedy impulse alive by being the emcee at most every department or firm event over the years, up to and including the annual MIPLA trivia bowl.

Building on his many years at 3M, and then at Fredrikson, he finds his pleasure in being able apply the best practices that he learned in house to the realities he found in real life. Helping to create novel and effective paths through the IP and licensing maze for clients of all shapes, sizes, and means.

These days he stays busy with MIPLA and pro bono on the LegalCorps' Inventor Assistance Program, as well as serving on the University's Business Advisory Group (BAG), while reliving his own past in the form of showering his three new grandsons with all the toys Phil himself had or would have wanted.