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“I enjoy using my creativity to find ways to win.”
Eric focuses on prosecuting and managing patents. He also advises clients on how to stop (or prevent) infringement of their intellectual property.
Eric is an officer and shareholder in Fredrikson & Byron’s Intellectual Property Group. He 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, sheet metal stamping, material handlers/loaders, grapples and attachments, mobile shears, truck beds, hydraulic systems and components, excavator adapters, extrusion equipment, polymer filtering, floor cleaning vehicles, carpet extractors, vacuums, wheel bearings and other bearing assemblies, agricultural equipment, HVAC components and systems, assembly line technology, automation equipment, window products, privacy glazing products, glass making and other glass technology, aerogels, medical device technology, fire-fighting equipment, log building technology, wake surfing devices, masking films, and consumer products.
Eric has worked extensively on a variety of coating technologies, particularly in connection with thin films and vacuum deposition methods. Examples include glass coatings, such as low-emissivity, solar-control, hydrophilic or photocatalytic coatings; commercial and industrial polymer coatings for concrete and other flooring; materials and ingredients used in forming coatings; privacy glass coatings; coatings for electrolysis anodes; photovoltaic coatings; gemstone coatings; sputter deposition; ion beam processes; flash-lamp annealing; tempering; and other heat treatments. Eric has also worked on numerous inventions involving multi-layer structures, such as laminates (e.g., safety glass), polymer extrusions, lithophanes and various glazing technologies.
Eric also has particular interest in aerospace technology, especially the mechanical components used in this field, as well as products in which flow characteristics are important. He has worked on technologies involving aircraft design, floats for amphibious airplanes, aircraft landing safety warning systems, fire suppression aircraft technology and aircraft bearing systems.
July 29, 2022
By Eric J. Snustad
When your company hires a consultant, engineering firm, or design firm to create inventions for your company, get a written agreement that assigns the resulting inventions and patents to your company.
May 13, 2019
There has been a bloom of data analytics tools for patent practice, and some new features of these tools have profoundly enhanced patent practice. Here are five examples of how applicants and their attorneys can improve day-to-day patent strategy using the latest data analytics tools.
May 1, 2018
By Eric J. Snustad & David C. West
No matter how much IP experience a person has, it can be valuable to have short, easy-to-consume reminders of the basic things a company should consider.
January 13, 2014
Is it now possible to get a patent on the broad strokes of an invention while at the same time creating potentially never-ending trade secret protection on the cleverest aspects of the invention? In the opinion of this author, the answer is “no,” but this may change.
