BIOGRAPHIES
JOSEPH D. CALHOUN III
Joe Calhoun, a registered patent attorney also licensed in Arkansas and California, has over twenty-five years of legal and related business experience in commercial litigation and client counseling, especially in the intellectual property fields. His primary practice areas include the creation or registration of intellectual property rights, the guiding of clients’ commercialization of those rights, the assignment or licensing of such rights to or from others, and the enforcement of (or defense against) infringement claims.
After earning his Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane University (Biology and Psychology), and graduating from law school at the University of San Francisco, he subsequently returned home to Little Rock, Arkansas as a law clerk at the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Joe then entered private practice with a well known Little Rock business law firm, departing as a partner on the eve of 2000 to better concentrate his practice in the areas of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and business competition.
Currently a mentor at The Venture Center and actively supporting the entrepreneurial ecosystem, Joe has long been involved in business start-up and expansion. In the 1990’s he represented the Technical Enterprise Center, Arkansas’ first business incubator, in assisting tenants organizing business operations and entering the market. He also formed a number of community development corporations to develop and implement plans to revitalize commercial districts and nearby housing. Mr. Calhoun also organized ContourMed, Inc., the first company to emerge from Arkansas BioVentures, the technology development incubator at UAMS.
Joe was Treasurer of the Arkansas Biotechnology Association from 1997 to 2001, and Treasurer of the Arkansas Technology Transfer Society from 1997 to 2003. He was the principal draftsman of the Arkansas Biotechnology Training & Incentive Act of 1997, and provided assistance in the promulgation of regulations. He was involved in the Arkansas Venture Forum in 2002 and 2003, assisting in the planning of the Arkansas Venture Conference and grooming companies for making their presentations at the Conference. Joe was chairman of the Intellectual Property Law Section of the Arkansas Bar Association for 2006/2007; he was also chair for 2016/2017. And in 2014, Joe was an active member of the Advisory Committee for the Life Sciences Emerging Technology Fund of the Central Texas (Austin) Regional Center of Innovation & Commercialization; that committee vetted companies and evaluated their applications for grant funding from the State of Texas.
MARK T. KOO OF COUNSEL
Mark Koo, a registered patent attorney licensed in California, focuses his practice in the areas of intellectual property and business start-up. He can be reached directly at 510-396-8596. After earning his B.S. degree in electrical engineering and his M.S. degree in Materials Science at the University of the Pacific, Mark entered the private sector and accumulated an impressive cache of experience in technologies such as:
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data warehousing
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wireless software and hardware technologies
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software for Wi-Fi voice communication technologies
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internet technologies
After graduating from McGeorge School of Law and becoming licensed to practice law in California (2011), Mark became a registered patent attorney and began concentrating his law practice on patents, copyrights and trademarks.
MARINA K. MIKHAILOVA J.D., PH.D.
Dr. Mikhailova is a registered patent attorney associated with Calhoun Law Firm, and is based in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has an extensive research background, with a focus in biomedicine and biotechnology, including:
(a) physiology and biochemistry of microorganisms and algae;
(b) formation of carcinogenic substances during food processing;
(c) oxidative and enzymatic DNA damage;
(d) genetic kidney diseases; and
(e) protein stress-related receptors.
Besides having a research career spanning over twenty years, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ Department of Physiology and Biophysics for over ten years. Some of her scientific interests include membranes and membrane-bound proteins, carcinogenesis and cancer prevention, structure and enzymology of lipids, oxidative and hypoxic injury, cell death, and gene therapy.
Dr. Mikhailova earned a M.S. degree in Biochemical Engineering from the Institute of Applied Biotechnology in Moscow, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Biochemistry from Moscow State University. She also earned a J.D. degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, and she is licensed to practice law in Missouri. She is also fluent in Russian.