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Steven M. Hoffberg is a practicing patent attorney, representing clients in all aspects of intellectual property law, as well as being engaged in Research and Development, protection of intellectual property, strategic investment in new technologies, and technology transfer, including acquisition and licensing of valuable technologies, often at an early stage. Mr. Hoffberg is also an active inventor. Some of his personal projects include Consumer Electronics/User Interfaces, Telematics, and an intelligent semi-automatic Door Closer. Each of these projects represents an example of the application of a deep understanding of the problem and prior art, engineering principles to the solution of an enduring and complex problem, using a long-term IP-centric strategy to capture the value of the technology. Mr. Hoffberg is registered patent attorney and principal of Hoffberg & Associates, a boutique intellectual property law firm located in White Plains, NY. This site does not present the opinion of any law firm, or any clients thereof. Mr. Hoffberg is an advocate of inventor's rights, and recently submitted an Amicus Curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in eBay v. MercExchange, favoring the normal imposition of an injunction after an adjudication of infringement. Mr. Hoffberg is also an opponent of many administrative and legislative proposals for "fixing" the patent system. This opposition is based on three principal themes: First, any change in patent rules will create a surge in applications, thus worsening the application backlog. Second, the US Patent Office provides no substantive customer-facing quality control system; that is, there is no way, other than filing a reexamination request, available only on limited grounds, to inform the Office that its examination is defective. Until the US Patent Office get serious about soliciting feedback from the public, and establishing a remedial procedure to correct deficiencies presented, foisting ill conceived and punitive measures on patent applicants will be rejected. Until it is aware of the problems, it should not mandate solutions. Third, in many cases, complex patent prosecution strategies are required to fully protect the invention, and are sanctioned by the Courts. The US Patent Office seeks to eliminate or severely penalize inventors whose inventions do not fit in its neat little boxes. Mr. Hoffberg remains an advocate of strengthened standards for patentability. The current standards do not sufficiently protect the public interests. In fact, the current standard, including the Graham v. Deere secondary indicial of patentability, are in some ways illogical, and should be reconsidered. Mr. Hoffberg also consults in the field of strategic intellectual property development, and assists in building value for enterprises by leveraging proprietary technologies and intellectual assets. He applies his technical and legal expertise to solve problems, and immerses himself in the relevant issues confronting clients. Mr. Hoffberg is named inventor of 29 patents. He has developed technologies involving human machine interfaces, networking, telephony, security, user profiling, media content compression, recognition and analysis, telematics, cryptography, and active damping-controlled footwear. This web site does not present the opinions of any person, organization, nor any client thereof, nor is it intended to provide legal advice. Legal advice can only be rendered by an attorney appropriately licensed to practice under the laws of the relevant jurisdiction, who is knowledgeable of the relevant facts, and apprised of the applicable law. Transmission of the information is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship between the sender and the receiver. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change, and should not be relied upon for any reason. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely upon advertisements. This site has been designed to comply only with the legal and ethical requirements applicable to lawyers practicing in the State of New York.
Contact InformationMr. Steven M. Hoffberg
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