Frank Nguyen J.D. ’94 was a finalist in the Best IP Lawyer category at the 2012 Best Bay Area Corporate Counsel Awards. He was one of 27 lawyers, from some of the world’s most recognized companies, who were honored by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal and the San Francisco Business Times.

Nguyen is vice president of IP and licensing at Intuitive Surgical Inc. During his tenure, the medical device company has grown from $91 million in annual revenues to over $1.7 billion. This is in large part because of Nguyen’s expertise across the entire spectrum. His efforts have helped the Sunnyvale-based company increase it’s patents and applications portfolio from 200 to 2,000. He is also responsible for devising and implementing IP strategies for the company, which has more than 1,769 employees worldwide. Nguyen has saved and closed multiple deals, including Intuitive’s acquisition of Novare.

But law wasn’t even Nguyen’s first career. The engineer-turned-lawyer took classes at Santa Clara University School of Law part time while working at General Electric. Before joining Intuitive Surgical in April of 2004, Nguyen was director of intellectual property and chief patent counsel at Macrovision Corp. and was previously a mechanical and lead electro-mechanical engineer at Hughes, as well as General Electric.

As part of the Best Bay Area Corporate Counsel Awards, Nguyen was profiled in the article, "Former engineer bolsters Intuitive Surgical patents – big time."