Overview

Jeffrey Shneidman, Ph.D., represents Fish & Richardson's United States- and China-based technology clients, with a particular focus on patent licensing and litigation and trade secret litigation related to computer hardware, software, and related technologies.

A patent and trade secret litigator, Jeffrey represents clients in forums throughout the U.S., including federal and state courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. He advises high-technology and consumer products companies—from clients in the Fortune Global 500 to small startups—on their complex intellectual property issues.

Jeffrey has successfully litigated utility and design patent cases involving a wide variety of patented technologies. He has also advised clients in post-grant matters since the start of the PTAB’s inter partes review post-grant practice in 2012 and has successfully defended or invalidated patents relating to electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering, and related technologies. Jeffrey’s offensive work includes excluding a major camera company’s products from importation into the U.S. after a trial at the ITC. His successful defense work has enabled his U.S. and Chinese high technology clients to avoid hundreds of millions of dollars in alleged damages. 

Drawing from his prior electrical engineering and computer science background, Jeffrey has worked on cases involving artificial intelligence, computer vision, network security, computer simulation, as well as a wide variety of hardware including patents related to 2D and 3D chip packaging, FPGAs, memory, medical devices, LED lighting, and consumer electronics.

Jeffrey’s trade secrets practice includes litigation and pre-litigation counseling in both offensive and defensive matters, and he regularly conducts in-house training for clients on how to protect their trade secrets. His trade secrets matters include vacating a $26M jury verdict against a multinational engineering company (incurred while the company was represented by a different law firm) and obtaining a defensive win of $0 in damages on summary judgment after excluding the plaintiff’s technical expert. He has obtained numerous favorable settlements for U.S.- and China-based clients, often avoiding the need for trial to resolve the dispute.

Additionally, Jeffrey has maintained an active patent licensing practice for the last decade and has negotiated or advised clients on many licensing transactions not connected to litigation.

An entrepreneur at heart, before attending law school, Jeffrey co-founded and served as director of engineering at a venture-backed startup in San Mateo, California. He particularly enjoys working with clients to address legal issues in full support of other business goals, so that "legal" is part of his client's overall corporate strategy.

Before he joined the firm, Jeffrey clerked for the Honorable Denise J. Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and the Honorable Ralph D. Gants of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Experience

MSC Software Corp. v. Altair Engineering Inc. (E.D. Mich.) (trade secrets) Represented defendant Altair post-trial. Successfully obtained an order granting a new trial on damages for MSC’s trade secret misappropriation claims, ultimately obtaining dismissal by the court of the claims.

ilumisys, Incorporated v. Philips Electronics North America (E.D. Mich.) Represented plaintiff ilumisys (d/b/a TOGGLED) in patent infringement case relating to LED bulbs in a fluorescent tube form factor. Case settled favorably.

Cypress Semiconductor v. GSI (PTAB) Represented respondent Cypress Semiconductor in one of the first PTAB proceedings to uphold the validity of all instituted claims.

Professional associations

Articles Editor, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review