M. Wayne Western

Mr. Wayne Western, of counsel, received his B.S. in Chemistry from Utah State University in 1961 where he completed graduate courses in organic chemistry and was also a teaching and research assistant.  While working his way through school, he was employed as an assay chemist at Kennecott Copper Company in McGill, Nevada and as a laboratory technician at Thiokol Chemical Corporation’s rocket site in Brigham City, Utah.

While pursuing his J.D., he was an Examiner in the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 1961 to 1964.  His area of examination was in organic chemistry. While a student at The George Washington University, Mr. Western was the runner-up for the Patent Office Society Student Award for a paper “Is 35 U.S.C. 103 Applicable to Chemical Compounds?” submitted as part of his course work at the law school, and published in the fall of 1964 in IDEA, The Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal of Research and Education.  He received his J.D. from The George Washington University with honors in 1964.

From 1964 to 1973, Mr. Western was a patent attorney for Shell Development Company in the Bay Area in California.  While at Shell, Mr. Western was a guest lecturer in Chemistry at Merritt Junior College in Oakland, California. At Shell, he gained expertise in the areas of petroleum refining and other physical separation processes. He spent five years working with Shell Chemical’s Biological Sciences Research Division in the area of sustained drug release from polymers, e.g. the No Pest® Strip and related products.  In 1973 he returned to Utah and began private practice. In 1979 Mr. Western became a founding member of Thorpe North & Western – and continues to be a driving force in the growth and development of the firm.

His particular expertise as a patent attorney is in the agricultural, pharmaceutical and medical product sciences. He has represented clients in the areas of transdermal, transmucosal and polymeric carrier based drug delivery systems, gene delivery, medical devices and nutritional supplements. He also has expertise in the  treatment of oil shales, tar sands, coal and used oils for the extraction and recovery of usable petroleum products and also in the development and use of synthetic diamonds and other super abrasive particles as cutting and polishing tools.

Mr. Western has successfully argued cases before  the United States Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA) [now the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CA FC)] and has functioned as support counsel and expert witness in various patent infringement and other litigation matters.

Mr. Western is a member of the California and Utah Bars, and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He co-authored “Medical Procedure Patents - The 1996 Amendment and Who is Really Liable” Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 4, No. 12 (1997).  He is a former Chair of the Intellectual Property Section of the Utah State Bar, is listed in the 2000-2001 Who’s Who in American Law, and as one of Utah’s Legal Elite in Intellectual Property, Utah Business, Jan. 2006. Mr. Western has been awarded the highest accolade of AV rating for attorneys by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.