Charles Kulas

Trellis Intellectual Property Law Group, PC

Charles Kulas

Charles Kulas

Managing Attorney

  • Electrical/Computers/Software Patent Prosecution
  • Digital/Semiconductor/MEMS Patent Prosecution
  • Intellectual Property Strategy and Analysis
Palo Alto Office
1900 Embarcadero Rd. Suite 109
Palo Alto, California 94303
Phone: 650-842-0300
Fax: 650-842-0304

In the News:

Wrote "iPod" Patent Licensed to Apple for $100M

Wrote Web Browser Patent Successfully Asserted Against Microsoft for $521 Million

Charlie's clients include Fortune 100 companies and Silicon Valley startups. His seven years of professional experience as an electrical engineer and computer programmer provide a strong foundation to help his clients build patent portfolios in all areas of software, computer architecture, telecommunications and Internet-related inventions. His other areas of expertise include digital electronics, MEMS and audio and image processing.


Prior to beginning his law career, Charlie was an electrical engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company working on systems integration in Hughes Radar Systems division. At Jet Propulsion Laboratory he worked in the Communications Research division on projects such as the solar system radar and military communications systems. He was a contract programmer developing business, educational and entertainment software for such clients as Sega, Atari, Hughes and Honeywell, coding in many languages from high-level down through assembly and microcode.

Representative Prosecuted Patents

5,197,004 Method and apparatus for automatic categorization of applicants from resumes
5,218,271 Plasma accelerator with closed electron drift
5,245,202 Conductivity modulation type MISFET and a control circuit thereof
5,262,611 Apparatus for ion-plasma machining workpiece surfaces including improved decelerating system
5,309,382 Binary shifter
5,392,386 Method and apparatus for adding functionality to computer programs executing under graphical user interfaces
5,412,567 Augmenting a lexical transducer by analogy
5,418,717 Multiple score language processing system
5,467,410 Identification of a blank page in an image processing system
5,471,575 Interactive parameter driven iterative financial spreadsheet analysis with context and layout sensitive help screen
5,477,474 Computer logic simulation with dynamic modeling
5,487,143 Computer user interface having tiled and overlapped window areas
5,546,943 Stimulating a beneficial human response by using visualization of medical scan data to achieve psychoneuroimmunological virtual reality
5,566,328 Reconstructing directory pathnames from file handles in a computer system
5,581,684 Application-external help system for a windowing user interface
5,583,763 Method and apparatus for recommending selections based on preferences in a multi-user system
5,594,856 Computer user interface for step-driven character animation
5,731,821 Computer user interface for step-driven character animation
5,801,703 Method and apparatus for selectably expandable menus
5,825,675 Apparatus and configuration method for a small, hand-held computing device
5,838,906 Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document
5,842,630 Structure formed of a single sheet of foldable material for containing three dimensional objects
5,909,375 Buffer for identification of pin contentions in circuit design and simulation
6,003,040 Apparatus and method for storing, navigating among and adding links between data items in computer databases
6,006,031 Method and apparatus for reconciling conflicting translations by factoring and parameterizing differences
6,025,576 Bulk vessel heater skid for liquefied compressed gases
6,066,960 Programmable logic device having combinational logic at inputs to logic elements within logic array blocks
6,076,179 Method and apparatus of increasing the vector rate of a digital test system
6,078,427 Smooth transition device for area of interest head-mounted display
6,094,650 Database analysis using a probabilistic ontology
6,115,826 Interval-timing facility using overbuilt hierarchical timing wheels
6,189,012 B1 Apparatus and method for storing, navigating among and adding links between data items
6,194,653 B1 Enclosure design having an integrated system of retention, electromagnetic interference containment and structural load distribution
6,222,675 B1 Area of interest head-mounted display using low resolution, wide angle; high resolution, narrow angle; and see-through views
6,233,364 B1 Method and system for detecting and tagging dust and scratches in a digital image
6,247,008 B1 Relational database access system using semantically dynamic objects
6,275,229 B1 Computer user interface for graphical analysis of information using multiple attributes
6,289,338 B1 Database analysis using a probabilistic ontology
6,298,481 B1 System for modifying the functionality of compiled computer code at run-time
6,362,817 B1 System for creating and viewing 3D environments using symbolic descriptors
6,381,696 B1 Method and system for transient key digital time stamps
6,404,441 B1. System for creating media presentations of computer software application programs