Practice Areas

Steve Sponseller’s IP practice includes patent prosecution, patent portfolio management, transactions, due diligence work, agreements, opinions (including validity, infringement, patentability, right-to-practice (RTP), and freedom-to-operate (FTO) opinions), counseling, offensive and defensive patent issues, licensing, and litigation. He also serves as an expert witness in technical and intellectual property legal issues.  He also is an expert in copyright (including software, publications, products and artworks, and other copyrightable forms) and open source issues. He works with foreign IP firms and foreign clients with respect to domestic and international patent prosecution, including Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) work.

 

The technical focus of his practice includes many areas of software, artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, computer technology, automotive technology, communications, networks, databases, datacenters, cloud computing, internet systems, and many other areas.

 

Experience

• Guided start-ups through Fortune 10 companies with respect to identifying IP for protection, filing for patent protection, and prosecuting patent applications
• Provided assistance to foreign clients and associates with respect to patent filings in the United States
• Provided assistance to U.S. clients with respect to patent filings in foreign countries
• Assisted clients with internal IP quality and value audits

 

Prior Professional Experience

Patent Attorney, Lee & Hayes, PLLC

Senior Patent Attorney, Aspect Communications Corporation

Patent Attorney, Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman, LLP

Patent Attorney, Young & Basile, PC

Hardware Engineer, Symplex Communications Corporation

Design Engineer, Synthetic Vision Systems

 

Education

Juris Doctorate, The John Marshall Law School, 1994

BSEE, Wayne State University, 1989

Steven R. Sponseller

Attorney at Law

Office  408.288.7588

Fax  408.288.7542

steve.sponseller @stevenslawgroup.com