Biography of Michael Buck
Australian and New Zealand Patent and Trade Mark Attorney
The interview below sheds some light on how Michael Buck originally became involved with the IP world and qualified as a patent and trade mark attorney.
Interview with Michael Buck
Interviewer: Mike, you studied electrical engineering at the University of Queensland, which forms the basis of your technical background as a patent attorney, but I'm particularly interested to know why you chose to do an Arts degree in philosophy and mathematics?
Michael: I actually started off studying medicine but after 18 months I realised that I really wasn't suited to medical studies. I switched faculties and started a Bachelor of Arts.
Maths had always been a problem for me in high school and I wanted to conquer it, so I did a double major in pure maths and a double major in philosophy, which also fascinated me. It was a very interesting three years but when I finished the Arts degree I was completely unemployable!
That's when I got into doing the engineering degree mainly because I play the guitar and I wanted to learn how to build guitar amplifiers. That's my undergraduate background. You can tell that I've had very understanding parents!
Interviewer: And once you had finished your Arts and Engineering degrees you spent some time in industry. Just give us a quick run down on your industrial experience.
Michael: After I graduated from The University of Queensland I got a job with a microwave communications engineering company in Brisbane. I was there for three great years. After that I moved to Sydney and I found a job there with Cochlear Limited as their patent officer. I learned a great deal in the two years that I was there before I moving to a position with a national patent attorney firm in Sydney.
While I was at Cochlear a very dynamic New York attorney used to regularly visit the company and he was an inspiration to me. He was very passionate about IP and was kind enough to tell me a little of his adventures in the IP world. He fired up my interest in IP, particularly patents.
Interviewer: What is it about patents that you find interesting?
Michael: I guess that the part of the patenting process I find
the most challenging is the abstraction part of it. The part
where having comprehended the problem that the inventor has faced, you
come to grips with and comprehend the broad invention as opposed to
just the embodiment of it that the inventor has described. For
me, proper understanding of the problem that's being addressed is the
key to being able to broadly claim the invention.
Interviewer: Once you left the corporate world you joined a national patent attorney firm and you've had considerable experience in long established firms.
What was it that motivated you to go out on your own?
Michael: I simply believed, and I still do feel, that for me the most straightforward way to practice is where my relationship with the client is unimpaired by distractions such as firm politics or billing pressure. The other factor of course is that I like being able to steer my own ship.
Interviewer: As a final question Michael, what in your opinion is the ideal experience that a client should have when making use of patent attorney services?
Michael: I think , it's very important to make sure that clients understand the advantages and the limitations of the IP process that they're engaging with.
For example, if I'm helping a patent client then that means carefully explaining the nature of the patent right and making it clear that filing a patent application isn’t a guarantee that a patent will end up being granted.
I fully understand that people seeking IP protection need to know the costs that they're likely to come up against so that they can weigh up the costs and the benefits in their decision making.
I also make sure that my clients understand that simply obtaining a patent or securing trade mark registration isn’t equivalent to commercial success. In our conversations I reinforce to them that they need to align their business plan with their IP strategy.
Getting the fundamental IP strategy correct at the very start is very important, and that includes us having discussions about searching and checking to see that no one else has already publicly described their invention or registered the brand name that they have in mind.