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Stephen G. Kunin

Patent Protection Practice
Reexamination/Reissue Practice


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Stephen G. Kunin
Partner

Tel  (703) 412-6011
Fax  (703) 413-2220
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STEPHEN G. KUNIN's practice principally includes serving as the Director of the Reissue/Reexamination Practice Group; testifying expert witness on patent examination policy, practice and procedure and providing consultation services to clients on patent law reform, rulemaking, and strategic approaches to dealing with complex patent prosecution matters. He is the former Deputy Commissioner for Patent Examination Policy with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He has more than 38 years of expertise in intellectual property rights protection and 24 years of organizational management and leadership experience. He was appointed to his former position in March 2000 and has served in a similar capacity since November 1994, under the position's prior title, "Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Patent Policy and Projects." Previously, beginning in July 1989, Mr. Kunin served as Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Patents. He participated in the establishment of patent policy for the various Patent Organizations under the Commissioner for Patents, including changes in patent practice, revision of rules of practice and procedures, establishment of examining priorities and classification of technological arts, and oversaw the operations of the Office of Patent Legal Administration, Patent Cooperation Treaty Legal Administration, and the Office of Petitions. Additionally, in January 1993, Mr. Kunin was designated by the Secretary of Commerce to perform the functions of the Assistant Commissioner for Patents on an acting basis until a new Assistant Commissioner for Patents was appointed in 1994.

Mr. Kunin joined the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) as a patent examiner in June of 1970. In March of 1977, he became a Senior Examiner in a technology of master's level complexity. He became Director of the Manufacturing Group in May of 1983. When a new Electrical Communications examining group (Group 260) was formed in April of 1984, he became its first Group Director.

Mr. Kunin assumed many leadership roles for the Office, including chairing the Patent Examiner Evaluation Board. Among his responsibilities, in addition to overseeing the Patent Examination Policy activities, he served on the USPTO Management Council, the USPTO committee on Discipline, and the USPTO Executive Committee. He also coordinated several of the Trilateral Projects under the jurisdiction of the Commissioner for Patents. He has been a guest lecturer at a number of prestigious law schools.

Mr. Kunin, as a Partner, serves as a patent consultant who advises clients on patent prosecution and policy matters and prepares infringement and non-infringement opinions. He also serves as an expert witness on patent law, policy, practice and procedure.

Mr. Kunin also now serves as the Intellectual Property Program Director at the George Mason School of Law where he is an adjunct professor who teaches patent law and intellectual property law classes.

Mr. Kunin graduated with honors from Washington University in May of 1970 with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering. He attended the National Law Center of the George Washington University, receiving his Juris Doctor degree in law with honors in May of 1975. He is a graduate of the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government SMG Program.

Mr. Kunin received numerous awards during his career at the USPTO, including four Gold Medals, four Silver Medals and a Bronze medal from the Department of Commerce, a USPTO Career Achievement Award and the Vice President's Reinventing Government Hammer Award. In 2001 he was named by Intellectual Property Today magazine as one of the most influential people in IP law and was the recipient of the Meritorious Executive Presidential Rank Award. In the February 2002 issue of the Practicing Law Company's magazine "Global Counsel" he was named as one of the most inspiring regulators in the federal government. In December 2004 he received the IPO Leadership Award. In November 2007 he received the Joseph Rossman Memorial Award from the Journal of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Society. In June 2008 he was ranked by Chambers USA as one of the top Intellectual Property Lawyers.

Mr. Kunin has served on the Editorial Board of the AIPLA Quarterly Law Journal and as an Advisory Committee Member for CASRIP (The Center for the Advanced Studies and Research on Intellectual Property) at the University of Washington’s School of Law in Seattle, Washington. He is a Vice-Chair of the IPO U.S. Patent Practice Committee (2005), a member of the AIPLA’s Industry Trilateral Working Group and a member of the Community Patent Review Advisory Board. He is a member of the LES (Licensing Executives Society), the PTOS (Patent and Trademark Office Society), the AIPLA (American Intellectual Property Law Association), the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the ABA (American Bar Association) and the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court. He is also a member of the Virginia State Bar and the bars of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court of the United States. He is registered to practice as a patent attorney before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

View a panel discussion in which Mr. Kunin addresses the topic, “Fulfilling the Patent System’s Public Notice Function,” as part of the FTC’s Evolving IP MarketPlace series.

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