Buss, Melissa E.

Melissa is an Assistant Chief Intellectual Property Counsel and Global IP Team Leader at 3M Company based in St. Paul, Minnesota.  She has been practicing law for 3M since her graduation from law school in 2000.

She is the currently the Global IP Team Leader for 3M’s Industrial Adhesives & Tape Division, which has the largest product portfolio within 3M with $3 Billion in WW sales.  After the COVID pandemic started, Melissa was asked to become the Global IP attorney for 3M’s Disposable Respirator Business, which includes N95 masks, and has approximately $1.5 Billion in WW sales.  Prior to these assignments, Melissa was the Global IP Team leader for a large Health Care Division with over $1 Billion in WW sales. 

Melissa’s specialties include building high trust/high performing international IP Teams.  Her current team includes a European patent attorney, a Chinese patent attorney, a Japanese patent attorney, a Singapore patent attorney, an India patent attorney, and two U.S. patent agents. Another of Melissa’s specialties is managing patent litigation and dispute resolution internationally.  She has led patent litigation in the jurisdictions of U.S., Germany, Spain, France, Canada, India, and China, and led dispute resolution teams in Japan and multiple other countries.  Lastly, Melissa really enjoys drafting complex patent-related agreements and developing, improving, and managing intellectual property-related business processes, both of which she has been doing for 3M Company during most of her career. 

She has been an active member of AIPLA since she was in law school and has participated as both a speaker and organizer of past AIPLA programs.  Most recently, she was past Chair of Women in IP Committee.