Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Erik concentrates his practice in the area of Intellectual Property/Information Technology. He is a trial attorney specializing in patent, trademark, and licensing disputes in federal and state courts, arbitrations, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He has handled a wide range of technology cases involving, for example, x-ray inspection systems, speech recognition software, Internet security software, diagnostic and medical devices, immunoassays, telecommunications electronics, and water purification systems.
Erik has extensive experience representing national and international clients in patent litigation in federal courts throughout the country. He has successfully enforced patent rights and has also defended companies accused of infringement. Erik has also designed and implemented trademark and copyright protection and enforcement strategies for clients in virtually every industry, including business consulting, financial services, life sciences, electronics, communications equipment, computer products, and consumer goods.
Erik's recent litigation victories include, for example, a case involving infringement of x-ray technology patents in which he obtained sanctions against an alleged infringer for making material misrepresentations to the court and for other misconduct. Sanctions included an award of attorneys' fees and striking of the validity defenses. He also successfully moved to exclude the alleged infringer's expert witness. This case settled on the first day of trial, after Erik and his team defeated the accused infringer's motion for summary judgment of non-infringement and won a number of motionsin limine.
In a precedent-setting case, Erik represented a vendor of Internet security software that had been sued by an adware company for blocking pop-up ads and adware. A federal court dismissed the claims, holding that his client was immune from civil liability under the Communications Decency Act. 47 USC § 230(c)(2)(B). The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling. SeeZango, Inc. v. Kaspersky Lab., Inc.(9th Cir. Case No. 07-35800). The case set precedent as the first application of the Act to immunize a vendor of Internet security software used to screen adware and spyware.
Erik represented a Sonoma winery that that owned a well-known trademark. In a summary judgment decision, a federal court ruled that the winery's licensee, an importer of luxury vodka, breached the license, that the winery properly terminated the license, and that the importer's continued sale of the vodka infringed the winery's trademark rights. The case settled soon afterwards.
Erik represented an R&D lab that had invented the key component of a medical diagnostic device. When the R&D lab discovered that its licensee, the manufacturer of the device, was using questionable accounting methods to reduce royalties, the lab sued to recover the unpaid royalties. Erik's client was awarded approximately $11 million in unpaid royalties, attorneys' fees, and interest. The First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this award. SeeCytyc Corp. v. DEKA Products Limited Partnership, 439 F.2d 27 (1st Cir. 2006).
Erik writes and speaks on intellectual property and litigation issues. He has been honored for the past four years as aMassachusetts Super Lawyerin the field of intellectual property litigation in Massachusetts by Law & Politics and Boston Magazine.
Partner, Burns & Levinson LLP
Prior to joining Burns & Levinson LLP in January 2006, Mr. Cohen was a partner with the firm Perkins Smith & Cohen LLP.
He has more than 40 years experience as a lawyer dealing with patent, copyright, trademark, unfair competition, licensing/franchising, visual arts, software, databases and publication law, formation and operation of business enterprises and not-for-profit organizations, international trade, litigation/ADR, and legal ethics. He handles acquisition, licensing and litigation of intellectual property rights. He has also served as an expert witness, arbitrator and mediator in intellectual property matters.
Partner, McCarter & English LLP
Mr. Cote represents both small and large businesses and occasionally individuals in both federal and state courts throughout the country. His practice concentrates primarily on hospitality, employment, civil rights, contracts, unfair and deceptive conduct, class action, private property rights and appellate litigation.
During his time with McCarter, Mr. Cote has played an integral role in obtaining several significant victories for the firm's clients, including the dismissal of a challenge under the public trust doctrine to the private ownership of lawfully filled, tidelands that were developed pursuant to a legislative grant issued in 1832 and the successful defense of a large food service company in a case of first impression concerning the application and interpretation of the Massachusetts Tips Act. Mr. Cote was also instrumental in obtaining a sanctions award of $100,000 in connection with a construction accident case brought in bad faith against one of the firm's clients.
Prior to his admission to the bar, Mr. Cote served for over ten years as a paralegal and law clerk in Arizona, Massachusetts, Vermont and Washington, D.C. During this time, he served as the principal legal assistant to the Arizona Legislature's Ombudsman for Private Property Rights. He also clerked for the Honorable Roger J. Marzulla and Nancie G. Marzulla at Defenders of Property Rights, which, at the time, was the nation's only non-profit legal foundation dedicated exclusively to the protection of private property rights. He is a contributing author of that organization's 1999 publication "State Property Rights Legislation Report: Federalism in Action."
Mr. Cote presently serves as the vice-chair of the Boston Lawyers Division of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. He is also a member of the executive committee for the Federalist Society's Litigation Practice Group and the primary author of the Environmental Practice Group's 2001 terrorism briefing paper entitled: "National Security vs. Public Disclosure: The War on Terrorism's Implications Upon Federal Emergency Planning and Right to Know Laws."
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
The son of an economics professor, Michael Meurer knew by the time he was 13 that he, too, wanted to teach at the university level. An S.B., J.D. and Ph.D. later, he became an economics professor at Duke University and later a law professor at the University of Buffalo. He came to Boston University School of Law in 1999, where he has taught courses in patents, intellectual property and public policy toward the high-tech industry. "It's a special privilege to be able to speak three times a week to an attentive and thoughtful audience," he says.
Professor Meurer has received several grants and fellowships, including two grants from the Pew Charitable Trust, a Ford Foundation grant, an Olin Faculty Fellowship at Yale Law School and a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Labs. He has served as an expert witness for the Federal Trade Commission on a merger case presenting issues related to patent licensing. He also has consulted with government officials from developing countries about antitrust law, and taught short courses in American intellectual property law at the law faculties of the University of Victoria and the National University of Singapore. "I'm excited by the prospect of having a positive influence on American technology law and policy," Professor Meurer says. Outside of work, he enjoys playing and watching basketball.
Associate Professor, Boston College Law School
David Olson is an associate professor and the Faculty Director of the Program on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He teaches patent law, intellectual property law, antitrust law, and various seminars. His research and writing primarily focus on patents, copyrights, antitrust, and incentives for innovation and competition. Since joining BC Law in 2007, he has been recognized for his teaching excellence and contributions. In 2011, he received the Business & Law Society Faculty Award for Achievement in Business & Law. In 2012, he received the Professor Emil Slizewski Award for Faculty Excellence. For one semester in 2015, Olson served as a visiting professor at Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he conducted research and taught a course on intellectual property.
Olson has published scholarly articles on patent law, copyright law, antitrust, music licensing, and first amendment copyright issues. His writing has been cited in Supreme Court and other legal opinions. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on matters of drug patents, FDA regulation, and antitrust.
The media frequently seeks Olson’s insights and opinions. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, and Reuters, among others. He has appeared as a guest panelist on WBUR’s Radio Boston, WAMU's Kojo Namdi Show, and Public Radio Canada. His op-eds have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Times, and The Hill.
Olson came to Boston College from Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, where he conducted research on patent law and litigated copyright fair use impact cases. Before entering academia, Olson practiced law as a patent litigator. He clerked for Judge Jerry Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Patent Enforcement in the 21st Century
Boston Lawyers Chapter, Intellectual Property Practice Group, and Litigation Practice Group
Boston, MA