D. Andrew Floam

Andy Floam is a partner of ESF and has been involved in the intellectual property field since 1985, joining the firm in 2004.  Andy holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and started working in patent law at a very young age, while an engineering student in college and continuing to work as a registered patent agent while attending law school.

With over 30 years in patent law, Andy brings a wide range of experience in patent counseling, procurement, prosecution, and licensing in a wide range of technologies. Andy currently manages a team of attorneys in connection with patent prosecution and related services for several Fortune 100 high technology companies, and represents smaller emerging technology companies as well. Andy’s practice also involves developing and implementing domestic and foreign patent application prosecution strategies; preparing patent clearance, patentability, invalidity and non-infringement opinions; providing due diligence analysis and analyzing patent portfolios in connection with licensing, mergers and acquisitions; and drafting and negotiating patent licenses and cross-licenses with multinational telecommunication corporations.

Andy specializes in a wide variety of electrical, computer, and communication technologies, including:

• wireless communications, including Wi-Fi® and cellular communications technologies
• video conferencing devices and online meeting services
• networking protocols and standards
• antenna design and related signal processing
• radio transceiver design
• analog circuitry across a wide array of applications
• optical networking devices and optical communication networks
• video encoding and decoding
• autonomous vehicle control and sensor systems
• IoT-related technologies
• artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms
• aircraft systems and services

While an engineering student, Andy began his career in patent law Ira Edell at a predecessor law firm. Since then, and prior to his coming back to ESF in 2004, Andy has worked as in-house counsel in small and large technology companies, as well as in small and large law firms. While working as in-house counsel for Motorola, Andy was responsible for licensing wireless (de facto standard) technology patents as part of an international licensing program, involving face-to-face patent licensing negotiations with patent counsel for European and Japanese wireless device manufacturers. Having served as in-house counsel for an early-stage wireless technology company from its founding and through to its acquisition by a Fortune 100 company, Andy has experience in all facets of intellectual property procurement, evaluations, licensing and related transactions. Andy has also been involved, both as in-house counsel and outside counsel, in patent litigation in U.S. District Court.

Andy has served on the editorial board for Patent Strategy & Management, Leader Publications (May 2000 to April 2002) and as an executive editor for The Patent Journal, Aspen Law and Business (September 2001 to April 2002). Andy was also an adjunct professor of patent law at the Shepard Broad Law Center, Nova Southeastern University (Spring 1996).

In his free time, Andy plays tennis and golf, plays guitar, performs occasionally, and writes songs.