Introduction

Eric Snustad is an officer and shareholder in Fredrikson & Byron’s Intellectual Property and Litigation Groups. Eric focuses on prosecuting and managing patents. He also advises clients on how to stop (or prevent) infringement of their intellectual property. Finally, Eric does a great deal of work helping clients avoid the patents of competitors. When competitors have invalid patents, Eric works with litigators to attack those patents in court or, when appropriate, he asks the Patent Office to reconsider the validity of the patents by initiating Reexaminations or Reviews. 

Eric is highly skilled in a wide range of mechanical arts. For example, he has done patent work on press brake tools, turret press tools, extrusion equipment, floor cleaning vehicles, carpet extractors, vacuums, wheel bearings and other bearing assemblies, agricultural equipment, HVAC components and systems, assembly line technology, window products, medical device technology, and log building technology.  

Eric has worked extensively on a variety of coating technologies, particularly in connection with thin films and vacuum deposition methods. Examples include glass coatings, coatings for electrolysis anodes, photovoltaic coatings, gemstone coatings, sputter deposition, and ion beam processes. He has also worked on numerous inventions involving multi-layer structures, such as laminates (e.g., safety glass), polymer extrusions, lithophanes, and various glass technologies. Eric also has a particular interest in aerospace technology, particularly the mechanical components used in this field, as well as products in which flow characteristics are important.

Education

• Franklin-Pierce Law Center, LL.M., Intellectual Property, 1999
• Pepperdine University School of Law, J.D., 1997
• University of Minnesota, Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, 1994

Bar Admissions

• California Bar, 1997
• Minnesota Bar, 1999
• U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 1999

Practice Areas

• Patents
• Intellectual Property
• IP Due Diligence, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Strategic Assessments
• Litigation
• Life Sciences
• Clean Technology

Selected Publications & Presentations

• “Final Provisions of America Invents Act Coming Into Effect: Things You Should Consider Now,” FredALERT: Patents, January 2013
• “Interviewing Patent Examiners,” 2012 Midwest IP Institute, September 21, 2012 (Speaker)
• “Strategies for Success in a Demanding Patent Office,” co-authored with John Parzych, FredNEWS: Intellectual Property, December 8, 2008
• “Nanotechnology - Impacts on Renewable Energy,” Midwest’s Premier Energy, Economic and Environmental Conference, November 18, 2008 (Panel Moderator)
• “Fredrikson Goes to the Fair: Patent Office ‘Technology Fair,’ That Is,” Fredrikson & Byron’s Intellectual Property Focus Newsletter, co-authored with Philip M. Goldman, December 2003