Thomas Lin
We are pleased to announce that Thomas J.R. Lin has joined our firm as
department managing partner. Thomas will handle a new department called
“Cardinal IP & Law Consulting Department”, which offers IP and legal
consulting services to Taiwanese and international companies.
Thomas has dual experience at law firms and technology companies
After gaining working experience at the law firm, “Taiwan International Patent &
Law office” and “Lee &Li Attorneys at Law”, Thomas joined a transnational
technology company as an in-house counsel. While at technology companies,
Thomas devoted himself to handling overseas cases for seven years. As a
seasoned attorney in patent litigation, especially concerning licensing affairs,
Thomas has handled a lot of international patent litigation and successfully
collected royalties from U.S.-based companies. As a Taiwanese technology
company, we can retroactively collect patent royalties, instead of paying
royalties to U.S.-based companies, which became a remarkable milestone in
the Taiwan patent licensing field. Due to his experience in handling litigation
around the world, including patent litigation and labor law litigation in the US,
Canada and China, Thomas has also gained extensive negotiation experience
and has excellent negotiation skills.
Thomas was General Counsel/ Legal Director at a listed technology
company
Thomas worked for ATEN International, a Taiwanese listed company, as
general counsel for more than five years. Before this, he was an in-house
counsel at another listed technology company, LITE-ON TECH. In total, his
work experience as an in-house counsel in technology companies has lasted
seven years. As a general counsel for a listed technology company, he
handled many lawsuits around the world, including in the US, Canada and
China. One of the cases was a patent lawsuit regarding the ITC (International
Trade Committee) in the US in 2006, and it allowed him to experience a trial in
Washington, D.C. for a week. Thomas also cooperated with Fish & Richardson
and other US law firms on a patent lawsuit in the C.D. California Court in 2009.
The experience of going through Markman Hearings with an American firm
was helpful to his understanding of patent law and US civil procedure.
As a general counsel at ATEN, building the legal department has allowed him
to upgrade his management skills, and it was really an excellent experience for
him. At the time Thomas joined ATEN, it had no legal department and lacked
any mature system to deal with the legal affairs of the company. Thomas built
the legal department and hired skillful legal specialists to establish complete
legal functions for the company. At that time, he supervised a legal department
with seven to eight employees, including three corporate legal counsels and
four patent engineers, and he directly reported to the CEO of ATEN. This also
helped him learn how to deal with management.
Thomas has an IP Law Master’s Degree from Washington University due
to a Scholarship, and Physics and Law studies from National Taipei
University
Thomas has an IP Law Master’s Degree from Washington University in St.
Louis and he finished the IP Law Program with a scholarship from WU. He also
had Physics and Law studies at National Taipei University and Chung Hsing
University and has a Master’s Degree in Law from Taipei University.
Thomas transferred from the Department of Physics at National Chung Hsing
University. During this period, he had to overcome many challenges and the
huge gap between physics and law. However, he came to realize that it is a
significant advantage to have a basic physics background in patent cases.
After he graduated in 1997, he was successfully admitted as the top-ranking
student into graduate school at National Taipei University.
Thomas passed Taiwan Bar Examination in 1998
Thomas passed the bar examination in Taiwan during the second year (1998)
of his studies towards his Master’s Degree. It was difficult enough, under the
educational system of Taiwan at that time, for students majoring in law to pass
the bar exam after four years of legal education, let alone for a student
transferring from the physics department.
Thomas is a trilingual speaker of English, Japanese and Chinese
Thomas is interested in learning languages and is trilingual in English,
Japanese (1st class admitted) and Chinese. In addition, he played an active
role as a youth member of the Rotary Club, was granted the 2000-2001 Rotary
Ambassadorial Scholarship in 2000 and was able to visit Osaka as a guest of
the Osaka Abeno Rotary Club.