Meet The Team: Mike
Welcome to the next in our series of regular blog posts where we meet key members of the Mathisen & Macara team. This blog sees us meet Mike Capaldi who has recently joined the firm as a UK and European Patent Attorney.
Biography
Mike graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree and PhD in Chemistry. He worked in a few technical science roles before he decided to train as a Patent Attorney – firstly with the Ministry of Defence then at Johnson Matthey. He has spent the last 19 years with Infineum UK Ltd., a chemical company, as an in-house patent attorney.
He grew up in central Scotland but now lives near Henley-on-Thames in south Oxfordshire and is married with a 21 year old son. Mike is a Chartered UK and European Patent Attorney.
And now we find out more about Mike’s career so far and his interests outside of work.
Talking to people
Mike says he enjoys many aspects of his role, especially “talking to scientists and engineers to find out what they've done.” He relishes helping commercial people to maximise the value of their intellectual property.
But he also takes pleasure from working, in what he describes, at “the sharp end.” He tells us that he “enjoys opposition and appeal proceedings before the European Patent Office, formulating the case and presenting it at oral hearings.” He finds it satisfying seeing the end results of these proceedings.
Proudest moments
Mike can pinpoint two proud moments in his career. The first involves an EPO opposition case that concluded at the Enlarged Board of Appeal. The case became known as the “Poisonous Divisionals” case or G1/15. While he did not see the case to its end, “I did engineer the early case to start the train of events.”
A second proud moment was working with colleagues in South Korea to defend a patent from a validity attack. The case went to the Korean Supreme Court and “we won!”
Advice to my younger self
As far as advice to his younger self, Mike comments, this question is a “tricky one!” Two gems come to mind: planning his career and taking opportunities: “I'd like to say I planned my career but truthfully, I didn't. Maybe in the past I've been a bit reluctant to take opportunities when they arise so I'd tell myself to do that more.”
Doing things differently after the pandemic
As the effects of Covid-19 fall away, Mike reflects that the pandemic has changed the working world. He found that “flexible working was new to me as I'd always been a "five days a week" in the office person.” Like many of us though, “I've adapted to it now” and he finds it has improved his work-life balance.
Life outside of work
And outside work, Mike has a range of hobbies – his main one is golf “but I wouldn't dream of boring you by chatting about it!” He also enjoys “old cinema, Hitchcock, 1940s black and white movies and that sort of thing.”
And then there’s cooking. “I think if I had my time again, I'd train to be a chef. I love cooking and eating out.” Would he really have considered this as a career? “From what I can gather the hours are terrible and you get shouted at all the time so maybe I'm best where I am!” We are glad you said that Mike – welcome to the firm!