Michael Switzer is chair of Akerman's Intellectual Property Practice Group. He supports his clients' business objectives through intellectual property counseling, licensing, and litigation. His diverse career in intellectual property includes serving as a patent examiner at the United States Patent & Trademark Office, as well as serving two tenures as intellectual property counsel at multinational companies.

Michael routinely litigates cases before the federal courts and the United States International Trade Commission, including patent and trade secret matters involving divergent technologies such as medical devices, RAID storage devices, facsimile machines, analog and digital circuit designs, and semiconductor architecture and processes. In addition, he regularly counsels clients on pathways to market for their research and development efforts, and has led the intellectual property due diligence efforts on numerous acquisitions and transactions. He also has significant experience negotiating and drafting agreements regarding patent licenses, joint development, confidentiality, consulting, and material transfer.

Prior to joining Akerman, Michael resided in Tokyo, Japan, while serving as the first in-house U.S. patent counsel for Hitachi, Ltd. As a member of Hitachi's International Licensing Department, he drafted and negotiated dozens of agreements. More recently, Michael served as in-house counsel for a major multinational medical device company, where he managed all of the intellectual property aspects of certain medical device product lines from initial clearance to market through litigation.