Testimonials

 

What Our Clients Are Saying

“What we like most about MLO is the people.  As a startup, MLO makes us feel truly valued- not just as a company, but as individuals.  They are easy to work with and very personable. We feel as though we are a part of their team.  We are elated at the number of high-quality patents that have issued in such a short period of time, and we could not have done that without Heather, Grace, Dave, and Jon.  They distill the critical information from a great idea and present it in a patentable way.  After that, they can take a valuable patent application and brilliantly overcome tough examiner objections. MLO always gives caps/budgets and is very upfront on the costs at every step of the way.  MLO is a great IP incubator for companies starting from nothing.” 

Ben Wynne
CEO, Intrepid Automation
San Diego, CA

“I have had the pleasure of working with MLO since 2016 as CEO of two healthcare start-ups. MLO is an excellent partner in securing high-quality Intellectual Property (IP) via close collaboration with our scientists and engineers. MLO has highly experienced IP attorneys and staff who have developed an excellent and cost-effective process for IP management. Heather, Grace, and Dave are incredibly responsive and results-oriented. We feel confident that we have extremely competent stewards of our IP portfolio with a holistic customer-focused approach instead of the transactional mindset we have seen elsewhere.”

John Pavlidis
CEO of EosDx Inc. – a new AI-driven modality in healthcare
Mountain View, California

“MLO handled our first strategic patent, and I want to personally thank Heather Slotnick for supporting us with it.  This firm has provided exceptional support and exemplified professionalism in all our interactions.  Heather should be very proud of what she has built with the quality of people she has assembled.”

Mike Kappes
President and CEO, IQ-Analog Corporation
San Diego, CA

“Silanna has been pleased with the level of support received from MLO. Heather’s depth of experience has been invaluable in helping Silanna crystallize its IP strategy. She brings significant competence, both personally as well as in her associates, to the table that have helped us move through the patent application processes efficiently and with very good results. In contrast to other legal groups we’ve worked with, we’ve been impressed with how she seems to be operating in our best interests from a financial perspective. She is giving us what appears to be very sound advice on where best to focus our capital in developing an IP position. I believe she is actually saving us money in addition to helping us generate a strong IP position. I have recommended this firm to others and will continue to do so. Everyone has got to be measured by the value they provide as a service provider and when you look at the combination of experience, support, communication, and cost, MLO offers a tremendous value.”

Mark Drucker
CEO, Silanna Semiconductor North America, Inc.
La Jolla, CA

“The word that best describes MLO is “thoroughness”. MLO is very thorough and professional in every aspect of the IP process. With multiple matters being worked on for trademarks, patents and IP, the use of docket lists and reoccurring calls are very beneficial in bringing me up to date and letting MLO know what our company has in mind for the upcoming months. In comparison to our previous firm, they have a much clearer sense of where I am with a wide variety of projects, and they really help our small business manage our budgets. Heather and the MLO team truly understand the small business mindset better than most other firms I’ve been around. They know that not one size fits all.”

Randy Ataide
CFO, StealthGearUSA LLC
San Antonio, TX

“I’ve dealt with a few patent firms, and I think that there’s always a desire to take as much of the burden off of an inventor’s shoulders as possible for the patent process. MLO is the first patent firm that has provided me with that. The clear differentiator that I find with MLO is that the agents and attorneys are skilled in the art such that I’m able to speak the technical language to them. It’s nice to have a group of people who speak the same language and then can implement that into a patent. And more importantly, we’re further able to discuss a patent strategy, because ultimately what we’re trying to do is protect a new type of technology.”

Dr. Petar Atanackovic
Chief Scientist, Silanna Semiconductor
Adelaide, Australia

“MLO has been crucial in helping our company develop a sound patent and trademark strategy.  Their expertise helped us get a very important patent issued within 4 months.  Heather is always on top of things and keeps everything moving forward, which is not an easy task with our schedules. Heather helped us further develop our trademark portfolio with logo trademarks and International applications.  Overall, MLO has been invaluable to creating and managing our patent and trademark portfolios.”

Victor Hsu
President, Axure Software Solutions Inc.
San Diego, CA

“MLO handles both our patent and trademark portfolios. Heather Slotnick’s management of our portfolios is handled with insight and a good understanding of patent rights. Kathy A. Wojtalewicz’s ability to produce clear, concise office action responses and appeal briefs has resulted in positive outcomes.  As a start-up, we appreciate their high quality, reasonably cost work product.”

Mary Garfein
General Counsel, Quisk, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA

“MLO is very professional and an easy firm to work with. I’ve enjoyed working with Heather Slotnick, Jon Lindsay, and the rest of the MLO team. Everything that we have pushed for, we have obtained successfully, for both patents and trademarks. MLO has provided sound advice especially with IP strategy. They have helped us determine which projects to move forward on based on initial searches. The results speak for themselves. The MLO team is very time efficient, provides caps when they budget projects, and are successful with matters that they have handled for us. I would recommend MLO to other companies, especially to other mid-sized technology firms.”

Tom Mullen
Senior Vice President of Business Development, OPSWAT, Inc.
San Francisco, CA

“MLO is the perfect partner in intellectual property, especially for a venture-funded tech start-up like us. Through their cost effective virtual law office business model, we are able to get the strategic advice and expertise directly from Heather. MLO, starting with direct involvement and direction by Heather, is able to apply business judgment, not just legal judgment, to come up with creative solutions that meet our business needs. I find MLO to be the perfect partner for us because they keep up with our torrid pace. Many patents and license agreements were completed on extremely tight schedules with nights and weekends with them. The people of MLO are competent, committed, and flexible. I recommend them highly.”

Aki Fujimura
CEO, D2S, Inc.
San Jose, CA

“I’ve been sending work to MLO for years.  The team is very responsive and they provide financial predictability. What I like to tell people is that you don’t necessarily get quality with a big firm anymore because the best people tend to go out and start their own shops.  With MLO, you get big firm experience and sophistication, but with smaller firm pricing structures.  Clients really appreciate that.”

Julie Holloway
Carlsbad, California

“I am impressed with the responsiveness and high-quality work that MLO provides. I appreciate that they are transparent with pricing using budget caps. Heather Slotnick is customer-focused and knowledgeable about patent law. Jon Lindsay is an experienced patent prosecutor who is detail-oriented, thorough, and works well with inventors. MLO’s services have been invaluable to my in-house role as a portfolio manager.”

Anna Lam
Sunnyvale, California

“MLO has been a key partner for Lifefactory as we navigate the intellectual property landscape. For a small start-up like ourselves, it was difficult to know what was worth investing in, what the most effective strategies and plans of attack are and if there were any loose ends we were forgetting. With Heather, we went from a sprawling and stalled IP strategy, to one that has been cost effective and gotten results.  The MLO team provides high quality work and is very responsive to meeting our needs.  We now have begun to build a library of IP that will create value for our company and I would recommend them highly to anyone else looking for hands-on sophisticated IP work.”

Roy Mabrey
San Francisco, CA

“I have worked with MLO for many years, with both corporate IP strategy and process, and as an individual inventor. Heather Slotnick has always been responsive to my needs and especially sensitive to my desire to contain costs. The work has always been high quality and her team has consistently been available for time-sensitive issues.”

Steve Horne
Co-Founder and COO, AquaSeca Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA

“We’ve been very pleased with the services and the experience with MLO, not only because they got the job done but because of the way we got there and the professionalism of the firm. Specifically, what was extremely valuable to us was the efficiency of the firm. Our past experience working with larger firms was that the patent process was very long and repetitive and we didn’t have people who understood our business thus necessitating many cycles of review. The attorneys are very good at capturing the essence of what IP is about and how people use it so we could have faster cycles. They could criticize in a very objective way. Also, the questions they came up with helped refine our ideas to make sure we were well-positioned in our claims. Because we could not talk to investors and customers until the patents were filed, our enterprise software start-up was extremely pressured for time. MLO did their best to accommodate our schedule and I really loved that Heather was also coaching me to do my part and be prepared for the meetings with what was needed. Heather understood our concerns and priorities, playing in the same game with the same goals. I am really happy we selected MLO as our partner in Intellectual Property.”

Carole-Ann Matignon
President and CEO, Sparkling Logic, Inc.
San Jose, CA

“While working at a Silicon Valley high-tech start-up, we engaged MLO because we wanted specific attention on managing our IP strategy. We wanted to deal with a firm that could understand the idiosyncrasies of our business, suggest alternative approaches to protect IP, and guide us in terms of cost effectiveness and timeliness. It almost felt like Heather Slotnick was an extension of our company. She is astute and insightful and really focused on costs and delivering things on schedule. When we decided to document our trade secret, the technical expertise Heather brought to the table while working with our founders to understand the physics and electronics of our business was incredible. The firm was able to extract and boil it down to something we were comfortable in defining as the essence of the product. This was accomplished in a short period of time. Heather worked with our IP steering committee to help them understand what the trade-offs were in IP strategy. The end result of her expertise and responsiveness was an organized IP library that created value for the company.”

Cheryl Diuguid
North Carolina

“At ZeroG, Heather Slotnick came highly recommended to us. Initially, Heather worked with us to plan out patent strategy with a limited budget. She then brainstormed and worked with engineers, helped review and select ideas for disclosure, and then carried it forward to 9 issued patents in about 3 years. In the field of top, competent lawyers that understand the Silicon Valley business, she stands out as particularly organized and easy to work with. Since working with her, I have recommended her to several other companies. It’s easy to recommend someone who does good work.”

Bendik Kleveland
Distinguished Engineer, MoSys, Inc.
Sunnyvale, CA

“Intellectual property is extremely important to my company, and we needed someone who was technology-focused. In the business of patent law, the person always matters, and we have found Heather and Grace to be the right people to help our company. Heather is a sharp individual, intense in personal communications and very responsive. She is also extremely knowledgeable, and she is able to advise us on how to respond to office actions as only an expert can. I have learned a great deal from her about the patent writing process and about patent prosecution.  Grace is extremely sharp and really understands our technology.  She understands the inventions quickly, which is extremely valuable when trying to figure out how to best work out the claims.  Both Grace and Heather are extremely responsive and very easy to deal with.”

Mike Tucker
Director of Intellectual Property, D2S, Inc.
San Jose, CA

* These testimonials do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of your legal matter.