Stephen Schaefer is a Principal in the Twin Cities office of Fish & Richardson P.C., and practices in the area of patents, serving large and small companies in the medical device and electronics industries. Mr. Schaefer devotes much of his time on contested patent matters in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and on licensing and other contractual agreement matters. Mr. Schaefer also serves clients in the following core areas of patent practice: patent portfolio strategy and development; patent landscape and freedom to operate (right to practice) studies; intellectual property due diligence in connection with acquisitions and client investment decisions; patent infringement litigation strategy (with the benefit of having worked early in his career exclusively on patent litigation matters, including three major patent trials).
Mr. Schaefer is a frequent lecturer on patent and licensing topics all over the world. He has a specific expertise on a company’s patent strategy vis-à-vis competitors, involving patent enforcement actions in US and foreign courts and patent validity challenges in the US and foreign patent offices, and has lectured on strategy topics in that area on several occasions. He has also lectured on topics related to patent licensing matters, and has specific expertise related to clinical support agreements for the testing and development of medical devices.
Although Mr. Schaefer represents some large companies, he also enjoys working with start-up companies in the medical device area. Mr. Schaefer also serves on the Board of Directors for Noxilizer, Inc., a Baltimore, MD start-up medical device company developing a new low-temperature sterilization technology.
Mr. Schaefer joined Fish & Richardson P.C. in 1995, following a federal appellate clerkship for the Honorable Alvin A. Schall of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. (namely, the U.S. federal appellate court with exclusive jurisdiction over appeals in patent cases). Mr. Schaefer also worked for the intellectual property law firm of Pennie & Edmonds in New York, NY (1992-1993), and was a Lieutenant in the United States Air Force (1985-1989) before attending law school.
