Michael Benedict Anastasio

Law Director and Associate General Counsel

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Mike is a Law Director and Associate General Counsel in the Intellectual Property Law Group of Sun Microsystems, Inc.  His current responsibilities include serving as Law Director for Sun Microsystems’ Chief Technology Office and Laboratories, which perform fundamental and strategic research and development for Sun, as well as for Sun Cloud Computing.  Mike provides counsel both to Sun’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and to Sun’s Senior Vice President for Cloud Computing, and their respective organizations within Sun.  

Mike has an extensive range of litigation, counsel and transactional experience in the fields of computer, information technology and intellectual property law, including in the areas of patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright law; inbound and outbound software and technology licensing and cross-licensing; joint ventures, collaborations and acquisitions; data privacy and security; technology commercialization; eco initiatives; regulatory compliance and export controls; anti-trust/competition law; and grey market and counterfeiting.  

Mike is a registered patent attorney and is licensed to practice law in several jurisdictions.  He is a member of the American Bar Association, Association of Corporate Counsel, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, Intellectual Property Owners Association and the Licensing Executives Society.  Mike is also a Board Member and immediate past President of the 1,300-member Chicago Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel.  

Mike is earned his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Environmental Law Journal.  He also has an LL.M. in Intellectual Property Law cum laude, and a certificate degree from the DePaul University Graduate School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems.