Stepan Starchenko
Associate
Stepan Starchenko is an associate in Ropes & Gray's intellectual property litigation group. His practice focuses primarily on patent litigation across a variety of technical industries, such as wireless telecommunications, telephony and networking, semiconductor technologies, consumer electronics, and propulsion systems. Stepan is experienced in pre-suit investigations, pleadings, discovery, reverse engineering, patent assessment, and performing infringement, invalidity and claim construction analysis in support of matters in district court and the ITC.
Stepan earned a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and spent time as a patent research analyst with Landon IP where he performed patentability, freedom-to-market and invalidity studies, and also participated in the USPTO’s pilot program performing searching and examination of PCT applications.
Prior to joining Ropes & Gray, Stepan spent over 8 years as a Senior Intellectual Property Engineer & Patent Agent at Synaptics, Inc. While at Synaptics, he managed an extensive worldwide patent portfolio, including innovation, prosecution, licensing and enforcement strategy related to capacitive sensor design and display integration, force and biometric sensing for opaque and transparent input devices in laptops, mobile phones, tablets, automotive and gaming systems. Stepan is also a named inventor on U.S. Patent 9,785,217 “System and Method for Low Power Input Object Detection and Interaction.”
Stepan actively supports Ropes & Gray’s pro bono work.
Experience
- Dolby Laboratories, Inc. v. Intertrust Technologies Corp. (N.D Cal.) – Representing Dolby in an eleven-patent declaratory judgement action relating to audio/video processing systems.
- Palo Alto Networks, Inc. v. Packet Intelligence LLC (N.D. Cal.) – Representing Palo Alto Networks in a five-patent declaratory judgement actions relating to network traffic monitoring.
- Emerson Electric v. SIPCO et al. (N.D. Ga., ITC, PTAB, CAFC) – Representing Emerson Electric in a 10-patent lawsuit, multiple inter partes review proceedings, ITC proceedings, and Federal Circuit appeals relating to mesh network technology.
- Godo Kaisha IP Bridge 1 v. Qualcomm (D. Del., PTAB) – Represented IP Bridge in a patent infringement suit involving eight patents related to semiconductor technology and in related inter partes reviews before the PTAB.
- Versata, Inc. v. Magnitude Software, Inc. (D. Del.) – Defended Magnitude Software in a patent infringement suit concerning a parser translator system.
- Ironworks Patents, LLC v. A Major Multinational Telecommunications Equipment Company (E.D. Tex.) – Defended Huawei in an action alleging infringement of five patents directed to various methods for user input and communication.
- Pro bono – Secured a contested guardianship of a minor on behalf of his grandparents.
Publications
- Co-author, “Electric Vehicles, 5G, & IP Disputes,” Bloomberg Law (July 9, 2021)
Education
- JD, Santa Clara University School of Law, 2017; Regional Finalist Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition (2015); Coach for Dean Jerome Prince Memorial Evidence Competition (2016)
- BA (Aerospace Engineering), University of Notre Dame, 2006; Design Engineer Materials on the International Space Station – 6 Experiment
Admissions / Qualifications
Qualifications
- California, 2017
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Patent Agent, 2010
Court Admissions
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, 2020
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, 2019