Eugene Molinelli

Eugene Molinelli is a founding member of the firm. He earned a bachelor of science degree in physics at the University of Notre Dame and a doctor of philosophy degree in physical oceanography at Columbia University in the City of New York. While a graduate student at Columbia, Dr. Molinelli participated in field work launched from Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York, that took him from the Hudson River to the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica and south of the Antarctic Circle and earned him the National Science Foundation's Antarctica Service Medal.

Postgraduate work brought him north of the Arctic Circle on survey flights over the Norwegian Sea. Throughout his oceanographic career, Dr. Molinelli specialized in statistical modeling of data to detect natural patterns while accounting for instrument errors. This work involved heavy use of computers and computer programming to design and develop specialized hierarchical databases and to implement sophisticated data processing, signal processing, and image processing algorithms. He was the winner of several Small Business Innovation Research grants from the federal government and contributed to his company's selection for the Technology Trailblazer Award bestowed by the Governor of Virginia.

Dr. Molinelli obtained his juris doctor degree from George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia, where he specialized in intellectual property. Graduating with high honors, he clerked at Jones and Volentine in Reston, Virginia, where he prosecuted patents in semiconductor fabrication. After being admitted to the Virginia bar, Dr. Molinelli joined McDermott, Will and Emery as an associate in their Washington, D.C., office, working for a retired judge from the U.S. Board of Patents Appeals and Interferences. While writing and prosecuting patents, Dr. Molinelli wrote many appeal briefs and conducted oral arguments before the U.S. Board of Patent Appeals.

Dr. Molinelli has delivered a session titled "Choices of Intellectual Property Protection of Computer Software-Comparing Patents, Copyright, Trade Secrets and Open Source Software" at several East Coast universities.