Steve Steinberg is a Partner of the firm. Steve is an intellectual property (IP), privacy and business trial lawyer whose practice focuses on claims for patent, trademark, and copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets, privacy claims, and other complex business disputes in both federal and state courts. He has served as lead counsel in several cases, and has represented clients in numerous trials, where he has won cases for both plaintiffs and defendants.
Steve has litigated patent cases concerning mobile phone accessories, web browsers, light emitting diodes (LEDs), networking technologies such as Power-over-Ethernet and WiFi, and power conversion technologies. He has handled trademark and copyright cases for video game, e-commerce, consumer product, and specialty food companies. Steve has also represented technology companies in prosecuting and defending against claims for theft of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duties, interference, and related claims, as well as cases for breach of contract against suppliers and disputes arising out of mergers and acquisitions. In addition, Steve has defended multiple healthcare systems in class action privacy litigation, including claims involving PHI under HIPAA, “medical information” under CMIA, as well as the statutory, common law and constitutional claims based on the use of analytics, pixels and cookies on websites.
Before joining Bartko, Steve was Counsel at Vasquez, Benisek and Lindgren / Morgan Miller Blair and an associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he handled a wide array of business disputes.
While in law school, Steve served as an extern for the Honorable Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco, and as an extern for the Honorable Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma of the Hong Kong High Court in Hong Kong.
Education
- University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), J.D., magna cum laude
- Princeton University, A.B.
Professional Affiliations
- Contra Costa County Bar Association (CCCBA): President (2014) and Officer and Member of Board of Directors (2009-2015)
- CCCBA Lawyer Referral & Information Service Committee, Vice-Chair
- CCCBA Communications Committee, Member
- American Bar Association (ABA): Chair of Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral & Information Service
- Conference of California Bar Associations: Member and Former Chair of the CCCBA Delegation
- Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL): Community Outreach Co-Chair and Member of Board of Governors
Bar Admissions
- State Bar of California
- United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States District Court for the Northern District of California
- United States District Court for the Southern District of California
- United States District Court for the Central District of California
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
Honors & Awards
- Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Star (2013-2019)
Representative Cases
Trademark / Copyright Infringement and Related Claims
Stardock v. Reiche, Ford, Northern District of California – Lead counsel for defendants and cross-complainants in district court case and related proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board involving allegations of copyright and trademark infringement, unfair competition, and related claims; reached favorable settlement near the conclusion of fact discovery.
Petranovic v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Central District of California – Lead counsel for defendant in case alleging copyright and trademark infringement, Lanham Act violations, and statutory and common law misappropriation of right of publicity; reached settlement after early discovery.
Comprehensive Industrial Disability Management, Inc. v. Chopra Consulting, LLC, Arvinder Chopra, et al., Northern District of California – Represented software developer and his company in defending against claims of breach of contract, copyright infringement, and interference; obtained favorable settlement following expert discovery.
Sahara Afghani Gourmet Foods, Inc. v. East & West Gourmet Afghan Foods, Trademark Trial and Appeals Board – Represented defendants in trademark cancellation proceedings.
Apollo Future Tech., Inc. v. Taqseem, Inc., Northern District of California – Lead counsel for declaratory judgment plaintiff manufacturer of e-cigarette liquids in case alleging non-infringement and seeking cancellation of trademark registration; obtained favorable settlement early in discovery.
Spiraledge, Inc. v. SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc., Southern District of California – Lead counsel for plaintiff e-commerce company in infringement action regarding “Aquatica” trademark; obtained favorable settlement shortly before trial.
Patent Infringement
Case-Mate, Inc. v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Northern District of Georgia – Lead counsel for defendants in case regarding mobile phone cases; obtained settlement early in the case.
Uncommon, LLC v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Northern District of Illinois – Lead counsel for defendants in case regarding mobile phone cases; defeated motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction and reached settlement early in the case.
Chrimar Holding Co., LLC v. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise USA Inc., Accton Tech. Corp., SMC Networks, Inc., Edgecore USA Corp., Costar Techs., Inc., Costar Video Sys., Belden, Inc., Garrettcom, Inc., Hirschmann, Inc., Eastern District of Texas – Represented numerous defendants in case regarding Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology; obtained favorable verdict after jury trial for one defendant and reached settlements on eve of trial for other defendants.
Trustees of Boston University v. Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., Lite-On, Inc., District of Massachusetts – Represented leading LED manufacturers through jury trial and overturned adverse verdict through post-trial motions.
Nichia Corp. v. Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., Eastern District of Texas – Represented leading LED package manufacturer through bench trial and appeal and obtained favorable verdict and judgment awarding no injunction or damages.
Synqor, Inc. v. Lineage Power Corp. & Cherokee International Corp. / Lineage Power Corp. v. Synqor, Inc., Eastern District of Texas – Represented leading power supply company (now subsidiary of GE) as defendant through trial and as plaintiff in dualing cases regarding DC-DC power converters.
Northpeak Wireless LLC v. SMC Networks, Inc., Northern District of California – Represented defendant in case regarding WiFi technology; obtained stipulated judgment of non-infringement after favorable claim construction order.
CSIRO v. 3Com Corp., D-Link Systems, Inc., Accton Tech. Corp., SMC Networks, Inc., Eastern District of Texas – Represented defendants in case regarding WiFi technology.
Other Business Disputes
ASML US, Inc. v. XTAL, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara – Represented the plaintiff, a leader in computational lithography, in a case involving theft of trade secrets, breaches of contract and fiduciary duty, and computer fraud by numerous former employees who joined a competing company; second-chaired a three-week jury trial that led to one of the largest trade secret verdicts in history. Click here for The Recorder article and click here for the Daily Journal article.
Timefire, Inc. v. AQS Engineering, Inc., All Quality & Services, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Alameda – Represented the plaintiff, a BitCoin circuit board design company, in breach of contract case against supplier; obtained favorable verdict and judgment after jury trial.
SMC Networks, Inc. v. Hitron Techs., Inc., Hitron Techs. Americas Inc., et al., Central District of California – Represented plaintiff in case alleging breach of contract, interference, breach of fiduciary duties, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unfair competition by former supplier and officers; obtained favorable settlement on eve of trial.
Accton Tech. Corp. v. Centillium Communications, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Alameda – Represented plaintiff in case involving claims related to defective microchips.
SMC Networks, Inc. v. Netstar Tech. Corp., Central District of California – Represented plaintiff in case involving claims related to defective network switches.
Publications & Speaking Engagements
- Class Actions, Data Breach, and Privacy Litigation
Update author, Chapter 1: “Challenges of Privacy Compliance and Litigation” (CEB California Privacy 2022-2023) - Comments from the Chair
ABA Lawyer Referral and Information Service (LRIS) (Summer 2019) - Local Idea: National Impact
Contra Costa Lawyer, October 2018 - From the Chair . . .
ABA Dialogue Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2017) - ABA LRIS Standing Committee Launches National Data Survey of Programs
ABA Dialogue Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2017) - Speaker, “Lawyer referral services need confidentiality privileges,” ABA Journal, August 2016
- Interview, “Meet Your 2014 CCCBA Board President: Stephen Steinberg,” Contra Costa Lawyer, January 2014