Breaking the Ice: Attorney learned value of patents early on

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Mai Lauer learned the value of patents — and patent attorneys — while growing up with and working during summers for a father who was a successful inventor and entrepreneur.

Lauer’s father founded Heat Pipe Technology, which produces passive heat-transfer devices that absorb heat at one end and release it at the other.

She would go on to earn engineering and law degrees and now works as a patent and trademark attorney at Westman, Champlin & Koehler. Her father sold his company to Berkshire Hathaway.

“He held about 25 patents over his career,” Lauer said of her father. “Having that protection allowed him to build this market niche that was really valuable. … He spoke of his patent attorney as having a great career.”

Lauer’s practice primarily involves working with inventors and corporations on patent prosecution for mechanical devices.

LegalCORPS, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit, recently highlighted Lauer’s pro bono service at its monthly brief advice clinic. She wrote and filed a provisional patent application for a clinic client’s mechanical product.

Name: Mai Lauer

Title: Patent and trademark attorney, Westman, Champlin & Koehler

Education: B.S., engineering, University of Florida College of Engineering; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School

Q: Best way to start a conversation with you?

A: Tell me what makes you smile.

Q: Why law school?

A: I’ve always enjoyed writing, but didn’t have the creativity for fiction, so technical writing was more my speed. It seemed interesting with patent law to be able to take your facts, the patent rules and logic to craft an argument that’s hopefully persuasive.

Q: What are you reading?

A: I just finished “Factfulness,” by Hans Rosling. On the back cover, Bill Gates says it’s “one of the most important books” he’s read, and it helps us recognize our own biases in our processing of information and even recognizing that the information we receive may not be the major reality. We hear on the news about extremes but the mundane middle that most of us live in is usually not so bad. Even if things are bad, they’re usually improving globally, for health care, for wealth, and it just makes me more optimistic.

Q: Pet peeve?

A: Arrogance. Because none of us succeeds in a vacuum. It’s important to recognize, in spite of our skills, there are lots of others who contribute to what we do.

Q: Best part of your work?

A: By definition, all patentable inventions are new, different from everything that’s come before in some way that makes it really advantageous. It’s exciting to learn about new things all the time, and all different types of technology. Because I work in private practice, we have clients and companies that make all different sorts of devices, so it’s never boring, always learning.

Q: Most challenging?

A: There is no certainty in the patent process, and even after years of work and thousands of dollars in investment, we might have to abandon an application and not have anything to show for it.

Q: Favorite activity away from work?

A: Walks with my family, especially in the spring in Minnesota, when the birds are chirping, the grass is green, trees are budding. I also enjoy sewing.

Q: Where would you take someone visiting your hometown?

A: I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for more than 25 years, but my hometown, where I grew up and went to college, is Gainesville, Florida. I would take them to Morningside Nature Center, where you can walk on trails right next to sunning alligators.

Q: Legal figure you admire?

A: Alan Page, one of the greatest football players of all time, retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice, founder of the Page Education Foundation. I think he’s inspiring.

Q: Misconception about your work?

A: That lawyers all work in courts. I’ve only been in court a couple times, when I was sworn in as an attorney and then when I performed jury duty. Otherwise, my work is transactional.

Q: Favorite book, movie or TV show about lawyers?

A: “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the movie with Gregory Peck. Atticus Finch saw people as individuals and not as stereotypes.