Russell M. Steinbrenner

Russell is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group. He focuses his practice on patent drafting, patent prosecution, and patentability analysis for clients in a variety of fields, including wireless communications, electronics, and software. In particular, his wireless communications practice focuses on satellite communications, UAV communications, cellular communications, short-wavelength wireless communications, and network design (for example, mesh networks using Bluetooth® communications). 

Prior to joining Michael Best, Russell practiced at a patent law firm in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he counseled clients in the aerospace, electronics, medical devices, and telecommunication industries. His practice focused on patent drafting, patent prosecution, and patentability analysis for aerospace navigation systems, accelerometers, semiconductors, implantable medical devices, and mobile communication devices. In particular, his semiconductor practice focused on power semiconductors. 

During law school, he worked as an intellectual property legal intern at Brady Corporation, an international manufacturing corporation, where he performed competitive research, due diligence, freedom-to-operate searches, and other patent analytics at the direction of the chief IP counsel. 

Solutions in action

• Wireless networks and communications protocols, including satellite and terrestrial communication systems 
• Imaging, audio, and display technologies, including image sensors for cameras and machine vision, OLED displays, audio encoding and decoding, and video encoding and decoding 
• Semiconductor technologies, including semiconductors for imaging, display, and processing applications 
• Flash memory and memory control technologies, including error-correction coding, encryption, and packaging 
• Near-field communication (NFC) and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies 
• Virtual and augmented reality systems 
• Internet of Things (IoT) systems and devices 
• Software, including biometric, encryption, authentication, and machine learning