Bloomfield Hills, Michigan -- March 19, 2007:  Howard & Howard is pleased to announce that W. Dean Amburn, Matthew Binkowski and Todd A. Pleiness have joined the firm’s Intellectual Property practice group in the Bloomfield Hills Office. 

Mr. Amburn concentrates his practice on intellectual property protection and litigation.  He prepares and prosecutes patent and trademark applications, drafts intellectual property opinions and agreements, and counsels clients in obtaining and enforcing intellectual property rights. 

Mr. Amburn has over fourteen years of litigation experience including first chair jury trial, mediation, arbitration, and facilitation experience.  He represents clients in cases involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, contracts, and related issues.   Mr. Amburn is admitted to practice in state and federal courts of Michigan, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and before United States District Courts in several states.  He is also admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Amburn earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Michigan State University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

 Mr. Binkowski concentrates his practice in patent, trademark, and copyright law with an emphasis on obtaining and enforcing patents.  He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He has prepared and prosecuted patent applications in numerous electrical, computer, and mechanical technologies including robotic welding systems, fastener assemblies, industrial controllers, satellite antennas, rain sensing systems, medical devices, vehicle climate control devices, automotive communication systems, virtual reality devices and gaming systems. 

Mr. Binkowski received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1993 and a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University in 2006. During law school, he was an intern in Howard & Howard’s Intellectual Property Intern Program.  He is also a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the state of Michigan. 

Mr. Pleiness concentrates his practice in intellectual property law. He graduated from Kettering University in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and received his Juris Doctor from Michigan State University College of Law in 2006, with a concentration in Intellectual Property & Communications Law. He is a member of the State Bar of Michigan.  Before attending law school, Mr. Pleiness worked as a co-op student and later as a manufacturing engineer at General Motors Corporation, troubleshooting for the paint automation assembly line.   Subsequently, Mr. Pleiness was a resident engineer at INA USA Corporation for two years, where he acted as a liaison between customers and management, including application engineering and plant scheduling.  During law school, he was an intern in Howard & Howard’s Intellectual Property Intern Program.

Founded in 1869, Howard & Howard is a full-service law firm with a national and international practice counseling businesses, banks and public sector clients.  The firm has offices in Michigan (Ann Arbor, Bloomfield Hills and Kalamazoo), Peoria, Illinois and Las Vegas, Nevada.  Howard & Howard’s major practice areas include corporate, real estate, environmental, intellectual property, insurance law, creditors’ rights, labor and employment, financial institutions, securities, estate and tax planning, and commercial litigation. For more information, please visit the firm’s website at www.h2law.com