Microsoft’s chief patent counsel joins Shook Hardy

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2026

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Microsoft’s chief patent counsel joins Shook Hardy

eppenauer.jpg

Microsoft’s former chief patent counsel Bart Eppenauer has joined Shook Hardy & Bacon and will open the firm’s new Seattle office.

Eppenauer, who spent a decade at Microsoft and was based at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, joins Shook Hardy as a partner. Before joining Microsoft, he spent three years as an associate in Shook Hardy’s intellectual property department.

The office will open on December 1 2013, and Eppenauer will serve as its managing partner. He will initially be the only lawyer at Shook Hardy’s Seattle office, but the firm expects to expand the practice there.

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Not all private equity firms are the same, so leaders at four externally backed IP firms came together to discuss the frameworks they followed and how they ensured a cultural fit
Top-tier German and Spanish firms are among the advisers on a Europe-wide copyright and licensing tussle concerning the design of the track circuit in Madrid
Partners Alex Wilson and Andreas Kramer say bigger law firm rivals don’t necessarily gain by having a wider jurisdictional reach
VO, which has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, is the second European IP firm to secure external backing this week
The Bardehle Pagenberg attorneys-at-law discuss the firm’s Managing IP EMEA Awards 2026 success, Unified Patent Court litigation strategy, and evolving European patent trends
A patent battle between two legal tech companies and a loss for Elon Musk’s xAI against OpenAI were also among the top talking points
With drug prices a hot topic in the US, courts are seemingly more reluctant to prevent the entry of generics to the market
Academic Eden Sarid joins us during Pride Month to discuss queer expression and IP law, Patagonia v Pattie Gonia, and how queer and AI-generated creations both pose novelty concerns
Patent attorney Michael Henson joins the firm to lead its freshly launched blockchain and digital assets practice
A dispute over mammogram technology, and a development in the case between GSK and Moderna were also among the top talking points in recent weeks
Gift this article