William Thomas Ralston, D. Eng.

Dr. Ralston holds the Juris Doctor from the University of Utah, the Doctor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, the M.S. from the University of Southern California, and the B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  At the University of Utah, Dr. Ralston was elected to the Order of the Coif, served on the staff of the Utah Law Review, and was the recipient of five CALI Excellence for the Future awards.  Dr. Ralston is also a member of the Eta Kappa Nu Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society.

Before Dr. Ralston’s entry into the legal profession, he enjoyed a productive 20-year career as an electrical engineer, holding technical and management positions at large and small companies.  He contributed to the design of several major satellite defense systems and commercial wireless products, and is a co-inventor of three issued U.S. Patents.  Dr. Ralston’s engineering expertise includes communications systems, signal processing, digital electronics, microprocessors, software, and electromagnetics.  Dr. Ralston is a recognized expert in the field of meteor-burst communications and has contributed to emerging standards in the wireless communications field.  His interest in communications extends to his hobby as a federally-licensed amateur radio operator.

Dr. Ralston is also an accomplished writer in both the engineering and legal fields.  He has published in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Radio Science, various magazines, and presented at numerous conferences.  In the legal field, Dr. Ralston’s paper entitled “Copyright in Computer Composed Music: HAL Meets Handel,” appeared in the Journal of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A. and was awarded national first prize in the ASCAP-sponsored Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition.

Dr. Ralston’s practice focuses on preparation and prosecution of United States and foreign patents, validity and infringement opinions.  Dr. Ralston prepares patents in a wide range of technology, primarily in the electrical and mechanical arts.  For example, he has prepared applications covering children’s toys, plow blades, medical devices, computer graphics systems, electrical components, test equipment, and wireless signal processing techniques.

Dr. Ralston is licensed to practice before the state and federal courts of Utah and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  Dr. Ralston is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA), American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).