Bart Eppenauer Image

Bart Eppenauer

Managing Partner, Shook Hardy & Bacon

Bart rejoined Shook after serving as Microsoft’s Chief Patent Counsel for more than a decade. In this role, Bart led the Patent Group in the Legal and Corporate Affairs Department, where he developed Microsoft’s patent portfolio of more than 35,000 issued patents worldwide and managed a team of more than 100 patent professionals offering patent counseling and product development support across all of Microsoft’s business and research divisions. Under Bart’s guidance, Microsoft’s high-quality patent portfolio resulted in an extremely successful IP licensing program and received top rankings in IEEE Spectrum, BusinessWeek and The Patent Board.

Bart’s practice focuses on strategic IP counseling and analysis; pre-litigation and litigation strategy; complex, multilateral IP transactions and license agreements; and IP policy advocacy. Bart has worked closely with government and judicial officials, academics, and industry leaders worldwide on IP policy issues, in addition to participating in the recent passage of major U.S. patent reform legislation.

Bart has been profiled in recent press articles on IP issues in Wired, The Verge and IAM Magazine.