Michael Cantor, Chair

Michael Cantor is co–managing partner of Cantor Colburn LLP, a leading national firm specializing in intellectual property law. He is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association, the Connecticut Patent Law Association, the American Bar Association, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Owners Association and the International Trademark Association. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. He also teaches patent law and procedure as an adjunct professor in patent law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Within five years after he joined the law firm Fishman & Dionne, Mr. Cantor was named a partner, and the firm evolved into Fishman, Dionne & Cantor. At the time, the firm had approximately 10 patent attorneys. Today, Cantor Colburn LLP is a full-service intellectual property firm with robust patent, trademark, copyright and litigation practices. The firm has more than 100 attorneys and patent professionals in offices in Hartford, Washington DC, Atlanta, Houston and Detroit, and ranks among the top 10 largest patent firms in the United States. Cantor Colburn’s clients include Fortune 100 companies, high-tech startups, universities and midsized companies in the United States, Japan, Korea, Europe, Israel and the Americas. Mr. Cantor has represented businesses from a broad range of industries, including technology, entertainment and consumer products, and he is a frequent speaker and author on intellectual property issues.

Mr. Cantor has been actively involved in educational outreach geared toward introducing school-age children to engineering and invention. The firm sponsors the Cantor Colburn LLP Scholarship for the University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering as well as a lecture series at the University of Connecticut School of Law directed to intellectual property and entrepreneurship issues. The Cantor family personally sponsors the Cantor Family Scholarship for the University of Connecticut School of Business. He serves on the boards of the University of Connecticut Foundation, the Connecticut Technology Council, the University of Connecticut Engineering Advisory Board and the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and is a corporator of Hebrew Health Care.

Mr. Cantor graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.S. with honors in chemical engineering/materials engineering in 1980. He received his J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1983.