Michael Curley: The Tucson Patent Attorney Who Used to Be an Optical Engineer

Inside the practice of Michael Curley at Quarles & Brady, the Tucson patent and trademark litigator whose earlier career as an optical engineer now shapes a docket built around invalidating bad patents and defending brands in front of the USPTO’s own appeals board.

Michael Curley — At a Glance

Origin: An Optical Engineer Who Became a Patent Litigator

Before becoming a lawyer, Michael Curley worked as an optical engineer with defense industry experience — a technical background that now directly shapes his client base, which skews toward companies in the optics and firearms spaces. He is a registered patent attorney with the USPTO and has practiced law in Arizona for two decades, describing himself as an IP generalist who helps clients secure and defend both patent and trademark rights rather than specializing narrowly in one or the other.

Practice Areas

Curley’s practice spans patent and trademark prosecution and litigation, including opposition and cancellation proceedings before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). He represents individual inventors, small technology companies, and larger businesses, with particular depth in optics, cryptography, and firearms-related technology given his own engineering background.

Track Record

Curley’s public record includes several specific, verifiable outcomes: he successfully invalidated an LED lighting patent that a non-practicing entity was asserting against a global lighting company, obtained a preliminary injunction in Arizona Superior Court stopping a competitor from using a client’s business name, won dismissal of a trademark infringement matter on jurisdictional grounds, favorably resolved a trademark infringement matter on behalf of a major public university, and obtained a favorable claim construction ruling in a chemical patent infringement case that ultimately supported a successful motion for summary judgment.

Past-Results Disclaimer: These are the firm’s own case summaries. Every case is different, and no past result guarantees a similar outcome in any future matter.

Client Voice

Awesome Attorneys did not locate individually attributable, quotable client reviews for Curley on major platforms as of the research date; his public track record is documented primarily through specific, named case outcomes rather than a consumer-review footprint, consistent with a practice built around corporate and institutional IP clients.

Community

Curley served as an adjunct professor teaching Trademarks and Unfair Competition at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2012 — direct academic engagement with the field beyond his own casework.

Recognition

Curley’s USPTO patent attorney registration is a genuine federal credential requiring a separate examination beyond ordinary state bar admission. His documented TTAB and federal/state court litigation record — invalidated patents, injunctions won, dismissals secured — represents independently verifiable outcomes rather than marketing claims. Arizona’s Board of Legal Specialization does not certify intellectual property law as a specialty, so USPTO registration and case-specific results are the most directly relevant credentials available in this field.

The Arizona Legal Backdrop

What follows is general legal information, not legal advice.

Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are almost entirely federal matters — governed by the Patent Act (35 U.S.C.), the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.), and the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C.) — litigated in federal district court or, for trademark registration disputes specifically, before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Arizona’s own contribution is narrower: the Arizona Uniform Trade Secrets Act, A.R.S. § 44-401 et seq., and state-court injunctive relief for business-name disputes, like the preliminary injunction Curley obtained in Arizona Superior Court.

The Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Curley’s genuine strength is a rare combination: real engineering credentials in a specific technical niche (optics), paired with a documented, verifiable litigation record spanning patent invalidation, trademark opposition, and state-court injunctive relief — not just prosecution work.

The honest caveat: as an attorney at a large, full-service national firm rather than a boutique, clients should expect large-firm billing structures and confirm directly how much of their matter Curley personally handles versus associates or paralegals.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched in August 2026 from quarles.com (firm site, attorney bio and case history). Quarles & Brady LLP did not commission, review, or pay for this profile.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement.

Related: more Arizona intellectual property attorney profiles · more attorney profiles serving Tucson.