Hojae An is a registered Patent Agent of USPTO and a current LL.M. student in the IP concentration program at Georgia State University College of Law. Prior to joining Bates & Bates, Mr. An practiced law for three years as a licensed Patent Attorney in Korea. In this position, he represented the clients in intellectual property litigation and conducted patent application review from Korea before the Korean Intellectual Property Office(KIPO). He is experienced in consulting clients with regard to IP-related issues including copyright of product image and trademark of business title, editing and preparing patent applications for mechanical apparatus to the Korean Intellectual Property Office(KIPO). Mr. An has extensive experience in providing technical advice and preparing materials for the ground-breaking tort case ($10M of damages) associated with metallic corrosion and operating dynamics of a gas turbine, and acting as a liaison as well as a legal consultant for insurance companies regarding technical issues including the quality of mass-produced gases and the appropriates of a drainage engineering, etc.

Mr. An’s undergraduate degree is in Chemical Engineering, and after graduating from undergraduate school, he worked for one of the major players in the global desalination plant market. As a plant engineer, his duties included designing the layouts of various types of filtering systems (such as a cartridge filter and ultra-filter system) comprising a plant.

At GSU College of Law, he focused his academic work on topics related to Intellectual Property law, taking courses in patent law, copyrights, trademark law, art and entertainment law, among others. Additionally, he is working on his independent research to present the characteristics and differences when the patent systems in Korea and the U.S. deal with medical treatment in terms of subject-matter eligibility.

He also served in the Korean Army and was stationed at the 8th U.S. Army in Seoul, Korea for two years.