Over the course of his career, Erik has gained experience in all aspects of the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights. Erik brings a hands-on, business-oriented approach to providing legal counsel to his clients. He provides clients with practical legal advice across the entire spectrum of intellectual property areas, including strategic intellectual property portfolio development, patent and trademark prosecution, technology licensing, intellectual property due diligence in corporate transactions, and intellectual property litigation support.
Erik has a broad-based practice focusing on counseling companies and investors in protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights for startups, as well as private and public companies. Representative technology areas include medical devices and systems; semiconductor manufacturing systems; MEMS device technology; biological detection platforms; renewable energy systems; defense and aerospace systems, financial services; signal detection; control systems and industrial manufacturing systems. Before joining Pierce Atwood, Erik was associated with two large general practice law firms.
Prior to entering the legal profession, Erik was Vice President of Research and Development and Corporate Treasurer for Active Control eXperts, Inc. ("ACX"), a cutting edge product development company focused on applying advanced materials, structural dynamics, and multivariate analysis and control techniques. His responsibilities included platform development, intellectual property protection, engineering operations, and materials research. He was the third employee, and an integral contributor to the growth, of ACX and to the ultimate acquisition of the company by Cymer, Inc., the leading publicly traded supplier of laser systems to the semiconductor industry. Erik is a named inventor on eight U.S. patents.
Recent Experience
- Patent and trademark portfolio development, prosecution and post-issuance practice
- Structuring product development and distribution agreements, collaborative research arrangements, cross-licensing agreements, strategic partnerships and joint ventures and licenses. Transfer of intellectual property rights in the context of acquisitions and divestitures, and on due diligence issues arising in connection with such transactions
- Litigation work includes claim construction, infringement analysis, and validity analysis. Responsible for clearance and infringement analysis and subsequent opinion preparation
- General business counseling
Honors & Distinctions
Super Lawyers, Massachusetts Rising Stars 2009-2011
Professional Activities
Member, Licensing Executives Society (LES)
Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
Member, Boston Patent Law Association (BPLA)
Member, MIT Enterprise Forum
Member, International Trademark Association (INTA)
Publications
Is Your Intellectual Property Portfolio Primed and Ready For A Financing Event?J. Capraro and E. Saarmaa, Law Journal Newsletters: The Corporate Counselor, Vol. 20, No. 11, April 2006.
Civic Activities
Vice Chair, Patron Steering Committee, Museum of Fine Arts
Prelaw Advisor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology