Pat Santos is the Managing Partner for Han Santos, PLLC. He established the firm with partner Andy Han in 2013 and oversees the firm’s growth and expansions of the firm’s scope of practice. Pat has an extensive technology background and is experienced in systems software, including database systems, operating systems, compilers, packet networks, cellular networks, cloud infrastructure and cryptography.

He began his career as a software engineer for twelve years, seven of which were spent at Microsoft. Pat worked on the Visual C++, XBox (original), and Windows XP teams as well as in Microsoft Research. His work at Microsoft resulted in being named co-inventor on three patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,174,540; 7,321,897 and 8,065,307).

Pat took a short break from Microsoft to join the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a Patent Examiner, first specializing in cryptography and cybersecurity, and then later in database and distributed applications. He returned to Microsoft in 2005 as a Patent Analyst for Legal and Corporate Affairs (LCA) where he was an LCA scholar.

Pat moved on to a national law firm where he was co-chair of their IP Counseling Group as well as Partner. He was also a C/C++ instructor at Bellevue College, and a C/C++ adjunct instructor for the University of Washington, Seattle.

Presently, Pat is a seconded IP attorney for two major Seattle area corporations where he provides IP conflict matter and IP strategy counsel. His desire to establish the firm sprang from the observation that patent attorneys are often limited in their understanding of the actual technology. His dream was to build a firm that housed technical subject matter experts who also are skilled legal practitioners with solid foundational understanding of the needs of corporations. This ensures his clients have trusted partners that can reliably counsel on all aspects of business, innovation, and protection of intellectual property.