About Tim

If you ever held a conversation with Tim, you would know you were heard. More than two decades into his practice of patent law, Tim has perfected the art of listening. His ability to focus intently on clients and the details of their innovations has allowed Tim to cultivate a crystalline understanding of the unique needs of each. That gift of clarity is one reason he continues to immensely enjoy drafting, prosecuting, and analyzing patents, even in today’s ever-shifting IP landscape. Whether clients are large companies with expansive patent portfolios or small entities encountering patent questions for the first time, Tim knows how to serve them best.

A founding partner of Dicke, Billig & Czaja, Tim focuses on mechanical and medical device patent application drafting and prosecution, clearance investigations and opinions for developing and existing products, and developing and evaluating strategic patent application filings and portfolios. His analytical talents, along with a down-to-earth approach, allow Tim to quickly distill the primary points of interest in highly technical subject matter, and to explain findings to clients and colleagues in clear terms.

Tim is a recognized leader in the field of intellectual property legal services. He has been named by his peers as a Super Lawyer every year since 1999 (one year after DBC’s founding), and served a term as president of Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association (MIPLA). His signature clients include several of Minnesota’s leading corporations.

While studying mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, Tim worked as a Process Engineer at Advance Circuits, Inc. He researched, evaluated and implemented new processes and equipment for a large printed circuit board manufacturer. Technology included a wide variety of mechanical, electrical and chemical applications related to multilayer circuit board manufacture, with a focus on inner layer production and lamination.

Tim graduated from Hamline University School of Law with several prestigious honors, including membership in the Silver Gavel Society and on the Giles S. Rich Intellectual Property Moot Court Team. He also received the Best Brief Award for the Midwest Region.

After spending nearly a decade coaching youth sports of all types for his son and daughter, Tim has hung up his whistle. But he still thoroughly enjoys going to as many of their sporting and dancing events as possible. Tim also participates in outdoor activities whenever he can, especially the adventurous ones (like biking down the side of a volcano in Maui).

Tim’s office is packed with sports-related mementos, though the one of which he is most proud is his dad’s 1963-64 Minneapolis Bowling Championship. Tim has been known to knock down his share of pins at DBC’s annual all-firm bowling party. He also runs the firm’s super fun, and super free, NFL and NCAA Final Four bracket contests. Tim must be doing a fair job, because he has never won either of them.