Mike has practiced for over twenty-six years and is licensed in Idaho and California. He focuses his practice on commercial law and litigation, including business, real estate, construction, and family matters. Mike also has a broad range of experience counseling companies on technology agreements and intellectual property issues, including employee mobility and trade secrets.
Mike has appeared in state and federal court actions across jurisdictions, before the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.
Prior to relocating to Sun Valley, Idaho, Mike practiced in Palo Alto, California at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Wilson Sonsini is a global law firm with over 900 attorneys, and a premier provider of legal services to emerging companies in Silicon Valley and world-wide.
Mike has worked for federal judges in the Northern District of California and the District of Colorado. Mike obtained his law degree from the University of San Francisco, graduating magna cum laude (top 5% of the class), where he was an Editor of the Law Review. He has a B.A. in English Literature from U.C.L.A.
Published Cases
- Lynch v. North American Company for Life and Health Insurance, 300 F.Supp.3d 1158 (owner and beneficiary of life insurance policy brought action contending that policy was improperly terminated without notice)
- KGF Development, LLC v. City of Ketchum, 149 Idaho 524 (invalidating Transferable Development Right ordinance under the Local Land Use Planning Act)
- Johnson v. Blaine County, 146 Idaho 916 (upholding county approval of the final plat of community housing planned unit development)
- Aspen Grove, Inc. v. Aspen Grove, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva Switzerland, Administrative Panel Decision, Case No. D2001-0798 (upholding claim of no trademark rights in the disputed domain name and finding that the adverse party had improperly engaged in reverse domain name hijacking)
- Vacation Publications, Inc. v. e-ventures Worldwide, LLC, Claim Number: FA2011001921872 (National Arbitration Forum / Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) (determining rights and interests in the vacations2go.com domain name)
- Credit Repair Cloud v. Nemo Apps LLC, Claim Number: FA2008001910796 (National Arbitration Forum / Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) (affirming owner’s rights in the credithero.com domain name and finding the proceedings were initiated in bad faith and constitute an abuse of administrative proceedings)
- In re Welch, 2015 WL 4574805, United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Idaho (denying motion for order compelling arbitration and staying proceedings)
- Express Publishing, Inc., v. Valley Publishing, LLC, U.S. District Court, District of Idaho, 2008 WL 3850625 (granting motion to dismiss copyright infringement claims)
- eMachines, Inc. v. Ready Access Memory, Inc., WL 456404, U.S. District Court, Central District of California (granting motions regarding trademark ownership, trademark infringement and unfair competition)
- Leland Stanford University v. Stanford Microdevices, Inc., 238 F.3d 427 (9th Circuit, California) (affirming district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction regarding trademark infringement)
Instruction
- Faculty, National Business Institute, Title Law
- Faculty, National Business Institute, Boundary Issues and Easement Law
Civic Experience & Bar Associations
- Company of Fools Theatre Company, Vice-President of the Board of Directors
- Sun Valley Ballet, Board Member
- City of Hailey Planning and Zoning Commission, Vice-chair
- City of Hailey Parks & Lands Board, Board Member
- Idaho State Bar Association
- California State Bar Association