Stephen has been practicing patent law for nearly two decades, with experience as in house patent counsel for Fortune 500 companies or their subsidiaries, including 10 years with 3M Company. He has practiced extensively in patent preparation, U.S. and worldwide patent prosecution (including acting as client representative in opposition and revocation proceedings at the European Patent Office), infringement, noninfringement, and product clearance analyses and opinions, client counseling, and litigation support, including discovery, motion practice, and participation in court-ordered mediation sessions.

His technical areas in patent prosecution include multilayer, prismatic, absorptive, and retroreflective optical films, backlit displays, LED devices, micromachining and microreplication techniques, barrier films, film and web handling systems, automated sample handling equipment, and flow sensors. Steve has experience in various biomedical technologies, including patent procurement and product clearance work for cardiac, respiratory, and diagnostic systems and devices.

Licensed to practice law in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office

Education

B.S., summa cum laude, Physics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
M.S., Electrical Engineering, University of New Mexico
J.D., magna cum laude, William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota

Industry Experience

Stephen worked as an engineer for 6 years developing and investigating optically-based pressure, temperature, flow, and analytical sensors. This included hands-on familiarity in an optics laboratory with technologies including: multimode and single mode fiber optics; fluorescence; laser diodes, LEDs, and other solid-state light sources; blackbody design and calibration; slab and channel waveguides; conventional lens and prism design; optical filters, including multilayer dichroic (wavelength-splitting) interference filters and absorptive filters; diffraction grating spectrometers; Fabry-Perot interferometers; silicon and other semiconductor photodetector characterization including spectral, electrical, thermal, and device-to-device characteristics; amplifier design; digital and analog signal processing; clean room wafer fabrication and inspection processes; workstation design including computer-automated data acquisition and control; software development; and non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) gas analyzers.

Other Interesting Facts

Stephen is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma, the Optical Society of America, and the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association.