Daniel J. Santos

Dan represents some of the top electronics, software and optics companies in the world.  His practice focuses primarily on patents in the electrical and software arts, but he also has a great deal of experience with copyright and trademark matters.


Direct Dial: 770-709-0013
Email: dsantos@srtslaw.com

Dan's practice involves all areas of intellectual property law including disputes concerning patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyrights.

Dan's patent practice includes the preparation and prosecution of patent applications. He counsels clients and renders opinions concerning the infringement/non-infringement of issued patents, the validity/invalidity of issued patents, and the design of products and processes to avoid potential patent infringement assertions. Dan has achieved an AV® PreeminentTM Peer Review RatingSM by Martindale-Hubbell®. This ranking is reserved for attorneys whose peers consider them to have the highest level of professional ethics and skill.

Experience

Dan Santos first entered the field of intellectual property in 1989 as a patent examiner at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. As an examiner, he examined patent applications in the electrical imaging arts in an area of technology classified by the USPTO as image analysis. In this area of technology, images are electronically scanned and converted into digital data, which is then processed using combinations of hardware and software to perform various types of analyses on the data, such as fingerprint recognition, retina recognition, facial recognition, character recognition and bar code recognition. After working for two years as an examiner, Dan moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1991 to attend law school in the evening program at Georgia State University. At that time, Dan was hired by Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. to work as a patent clerk preparing and prosecuting patent applications relating to cable TV set top boxes. In 1992, Dan left Scientific-Atlanta and took a position with an Atlanta law firm where he worked as a patent clerk preparing and prosecuting applications in the electrical and computer technologies. He graduated from law school in 1995 and was admitted to the Georgia Bar that same year. He also became registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a patent lawyer in 1995.

Since 1995, Dan has worked as an intellectual property attorney focusing primarily on domestic and foreign patent application drafting and prosecution. Over the years, his practice has focused in the areas of electronics, computers, software, telecommunications and optics. Specific areas of technology in which he practices include integrated circuit design and processes, memory storage systems, analog and digital circuit design, error correction, data encryption/decryption, CATV set top boxes, cellular telephones, cellular networks, telecommunications protocols, optical fibers, optical transceivers and radio frequency (RF) technology. In addition to patent procurement, Dan also does a considerable amount of work relating to patent validity and infringement analyses and opinions. Dan also has experience in litigating intellectual property issues. He also has acted as an arbitrator/mediator in patent cases. A significant part of his practice also involves performing freedom to practice analyses and opinion drafting.

Dan was formerly a partner at the law firms of Thomas Kayden Horstemeyer & Risley, L.L.P. and Gardner Groff Santos & Greenwald, P.C. He is currently a partner at Smith Tempel. His clients include large international corporate clients, international law firms and smaller U.S. corporate clients and individual inventors. Dan also stays active in the intellectual property community on both the local and national level. He has published several articles and given several speeches on patent issues. He has also appeared on television discussing various issues relating to patents, trade secrets, trademarks and copyrights. He has acted as the chair of the Emerging Technologies Subcommittee on Nanotechnology of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) and has been involved in panel discussions both as a moderator and as a panelist.

Education

Law school

Georgia State University College of Law, J.D., 1995

Undergraduate

Clemson University, B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1989

Admissions

Dan is admitted to practice in Georgia and is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Member

Dan is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of Georgia and the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA).

Areas of practice

  • Patents
    • Electrical
    • Software/Computer
    • Mechanical
    • Optics
  • Intellectual Property Litigation – patents, trademarks, copyright and unfair competition
  • Trademark and Design
  • Copyrights

Publications & presentations

  • "A New Frontier in Patents: Patent Claims to Propagated Signals," The John Marshall Journal Of Computer and Information Law, Vol. XVII, Number 1, March 1999.
  • "What Does 'Means' Mean," Intellectual Property Today, October 1997.
  • "'Means-Plus-Function Can Cause Drafting Angst," The National Law Journal, October 1997.
  • “Dismantling The Atomic Bomb Of Patent Defenses,” Intellectual Property Today, July 2011.