Michelle K. Holoubek

Michelle K. Holoubek is a director in Sterne Kessler's Electronics Practice Group. With a background in relativistic physics, she specializes in software, digital healthcare, bioinformatics, and optical technologies. Having handled hundreds of software and business method applications at the PTO, patent-eligible subject matter (aka "101") is her special area of expertise. In addition to the preparation and prosecution of patents to develop portfolios for startups and Fortune 100 companies alike, she has been lead counsel in IPRs, CBMs, and reexams for both patent owners and challengers. She has also provided infringement and invalidity analysis in opinions for a variety of technologies. Michelle was named as one of the inaugural Top 50 Women in PTAB Trials by the PTAB Bar Association.

In addition to cutting-edge optical and software applications, Michelle is heavily involved in our digital healthcare and bioinformatics practice, focusing on the intersection between optical devices, big data analytics, and the life sciences ecosystem.  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, along with the more processing-based analyses of interpreting biological correlations. 

Additional technical fields in which Michelle works include: web interfaces, Internet communications systems, software development, telecommunications systems, lasers, 3D printing, photolithography, cryptographic messaging, semiconductor fabrication and devices, electronic design automation, biometric devices, implantable medical devices, catheter location systems, sensor communication systems, financial products, and various other electrical, optical, and software/business method inventions.

Michelle is a contributing author of Patent Office Litigation, Second Edition, published in 2017. The book provides a fresh and comprehensive exploration of patent office litigation proceedings, including how the proceedings interact with other aspects of patent procurement and enforcement, while delivering practical analysis and advice. This second edition of Patent Office Litigation is the follow up to the first version of the book that was published in 2012 by Thomson Reuters Westlaw that focused on the contested proceedings that were introduced under the America Invents Act that year. Michelle is the Chapter Chief for the chapter on Covered Business Method Patent Review (CBM) in the 2012 edition. Additionally, she is 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).

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 with 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. From 2008-2013, Michelle  served on the Executive Committee for LSU's College of Science. Michelle has her J.D. from George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School.