Overview
Michelle K. Holoubek is a director in Sterne Kessler’s Electronics Practice Group. With a background in relativistic physics and computational modeling, Michelle combines her legal expertise and technical acumen to guide clients through the evolving artificial intelligence (AI)/deep-learning landscape. She is well-versed in protecting software-based innovation through holistic complements of patents, trade secrets, and copyrights, as well as securing freedom to operate for startups and Fortune 100 companies alike. Having handled hundreds of computational applications at the USPTO, patent-eligible subject matter (aka “101”) is Michelle’s special area of expertise.
Michelle brings an interdisciplinary approach to our digital healthcare and bioinformatics practice, focusing on the intersection between big data analytics and the life sciences ecosystem. In addition to handling deep learning AI models for biomics/genomics, diagnostics, and drug discovery, she has practiced in the biological sample analysis and detection space since the early 2000s, including microfluidics, fluorescence-based imaging systems, and next-gen sequencing. Michelle is also a strategic IP partner for financial technology (“fintech”) clients, whose use of data analytics and software within a highly regulated environment requires comprehensive IP solutions.
In addition to tailored IP counseling and patent portfolio development, she has been lead counsel in inter partes reviews (IPRs), post-grant reviews (PGRs), and reexams for both patent owners and challengers. She has also provided infringement and invalidity analysis in opinions for a variety of technologies, including biotech, fintech, and mechanical. Michelle was named as one of the inaugural Top 50 Women in PTAB Trials by the PTAB Bar Association.
Michelle is a contributing author of Patent Office Litigation, Second Edition, published in 2017, and the two-volume set Patent Office Litigation, published in 2012 by Thomson Reuters Westlaw. She is also a contributing author of the chapter on “Patentability Challenges at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office” in the ABA’s Patent Litigation Strategies Handbook, 4th Edition (2015), and routinely speaks and publishes on AI and software patentability and eligibility.
Prior to joining Sterne Kessler, Michelle studied physics with a concentration in astronomy at Louisiana State University. She focused her research on gravitational wave detection, working on both LSU’s resonant bar detector ALLEGRO and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). While at LSU, she also assisted in the development of software simulation and analysis programs for laboratory and educational use, and participated in a summer research fellowship for LIGO at the California Institute of Technology. Michelle currently serves on the Executive Committee for LSU’s College of Science, and is a member of the LSU Foundation’s National Board. Michelle has her J.D. from George Mason University School of Law.
Related Services
Accolades
- PTAB Bar Association, “Top 50 Women in PTAB Trials” (2021 & 2019)
- Profiles in Diversity Journal, “Women Worth Watching® in STEM” (2020)
Education
- J.D., George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School
- B.S., Physics, Louisiana State University
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Patent & Trademark Office
- Virginia