Steven G. Saunders

Steven is a partner at Sunstein and Vice Chairman of the Patent Practice Group. He focuses his practice in patent and trademark preparation and prosecution matters, product clearance, intellectual property due diligence prior to a merger, acquisition, or venture capital or angel investment, portfolio development and evaluation, intellectual property litigation, interpartes and expartes reexamination, and licensing.  He devotes a significant portion of his practice to identifying and protecting technologies that are critical to his clients’ business goals. Strategies often include determining which type(s) of intellectual property protection best serve the client’s needs, locating and analyzing prior art and issued patents that may act as a potential obstacle to those needs, and determining prudent business and legal options in view of such potential obstacles.

Steven also is an active participant in the angel investor community.  As an angel investor, Steven hears dozens of presentations from early stage entrepreneurs each year.  In that capacity, he regularly conducts extensive due diligence on potential target companies, analyzing both their core businesses and their intellectual property issues.

Experience

• Practices across an extensive range of technologies, including: electrical systems, high performance computing, computer hardware and software, analog and digital circuit design, integrated circuit design, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), medical devices and instrumentation, alternative energy, photovoltaics, power supplies, graphics processors and accelerators, semiconductor fabrication, computer networking, Internet utilization and enhancement devices, injection molding and manufacturing, data encryption, electric motors, network switching devices, and business methods.
• Develops highly valued intellectual property portfolios in both the United States and abroad. Patents he has prosecuted have been the subject of multi-million dollar litigation recoveries and licenses.
• Counsels clients of all sizes, ranging from start-ups to multinational corporations.
• Conducts prior art and clearance investigations ultimately demonstrating that either the client’s product does not infringe third-party patents, or that the third-party patents are invalid. Steven also assists clients in designing around third-party patents.
• Assists early stage companies in obtaining venture and angel financing.
• Conducts due diligence analysis for both investing/acquiring companies and target companies.

Professional and Community Involvement

• Chair and/or speaker on intellectual property matters at seminars for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE), Boston Patent Law Association and Boston Bar Association.
• Hub Angels Investment Group.
• Co-chair, Legal Working Group of the Media Grid International Standards Organization.
• Board Member of Boston University Ignition Award Program.
• Guest lecturer at Boston University on patent law and related intellectual property subjects.
• Past guest lecturer, Northeastern University High-Technology MBA program.
• Board Member, University of Maine School of Law Alumni Board of Directors.
• Member of the Boston Bar Association, Boston Patent Law Association, and American Intellectual Property Law Association.
• Past Communications Committee Chair, Boston Bar Association Business Section.

Honors

• Steven has received the highest peer review rating by Martindale-Hubbell, based on a survey of other lawyers and judges in the community.
• Steven is a lifetime member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.
• Steve was named to the Super Lawyers® list in the practice area of intellectual property 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 in Boston magazine.
• The publishers of Law & Politics and Boston magazine named Steven a “Rising Star” in the field of intellectual property. The top 2.5 percent of attorneys who are under the age of 40 or who have been practicing 10 or fewer years are named Rising Stars through independent research and upon recommendation of their peers.

Bar and Court Admissions

• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• 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.