Joel R. Leeman

Joel R. Leeman is a partner at Sunstein, and devotes his practice to the litigation of patent and trademark disputes. He has extensive experience in handling technology-licensing disputes, as well as trade secret and general commercial litigation. He has represented clients–and lectured and written–in the areas of employee non-competition disputes, trade secret law, and international arbitration. Joel focuses on helping our clients resolve disputes efficiently—whether through arbitration, litigation or other methods—and in a manner that promotes their business objectives. He routinely advises clients regarding strategies for minimizing future litigation risks.

Experience

• Successfully represented a California company in a dispute, alleging misappropriation of proprietary software, that established a Massachusetts standard for a plaintiff’s duty to disclose his trade secrets at the outset of pretrial  discovery.
• Successfully defended a Massachusetts company in patent litigation involving food-processing technology.
• Litigated novel issues on behalf of a web-hosting company, including the extent of long-arm jurisdiction over an out-of-state operator and remedies available for unfair business practices arising from conduct on the Internet.
• Member of the trial team that conducted an infringement trial involving a patent for pharmaceutical diagnostic products.
• Possesses special expertise in the economic analysis of patent infringement cases.
• Handles trademark infringement/dilution litigation on behalf of a major university.
• Has represented clients in international contract disputes, trade secret suits, and professional negligence.
• Has handled recent patent litigations involving telecommunications, fluorescent lamps, variable-data printing, and electrical feedthroughs.

Professional and Community Involvement

• Active participant in early-education literacy programs in Boston public schools.
• Has played in a softball double-header every Sunday of the spring, summer and fall forover 30 years.
• Formerly an instructor of advanced Hebrew language at Brandeis while pursuing his graduate studies.

Honors

• Joel was named to the Super Lawyers® list in the practice area of intellectual property 2004-2011 in Massachusetts, a list limited to the top 5 percent of attorneys in each region.  The attorneys featured in Super Lawyers were selected by their peers in an extensive nomination and polling process conducted by the research team at Super Lawyers, a service of Thomson Reuters and seen in a special advertising section inBoston magazine.

Recent Publications

• “What Can I Say? Leeway and Legal Limits in Commercial Speech: A Primer on Defamation, Commercial Disparagement and False Advertising,” American Bar Association (Spring 2009).
• “25% Rule is Drawn and Quartered: Court Rejects Popular Method for Computing Patent Infringement Damages,” Intellectual Property Update, January 2011.
• “Bimbo Knows the Muffin Man…and Teaches Him a Lesson in Trade Secrets,” Intellectual Property Update, August 2010.
• “Silence is Deadly: The Peril of Inaction After Calling Someone an Infringer,” Intellectual Property Update, June 2010.

Bar and Court Admissions

• Admitted to the Massachusetts bar, as well as the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeal, the Federal Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

*The Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Icon is a service mark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under permission from Reed Elsevier Properties Inc. in accord with the terms and conditions established by Martindale-Hubbell.