Attorneys serving Massachusetts, Rhode Island

Stephen Y. Chow

Partner

Office Phone: 617.345.3263
Location: Boston, MA
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Practice:

Bar Admissions:

Massachusetts
New York
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals First, Second and Federal Circuits
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and S.D.N.Y.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Experience:

Prior to joining Burns & Levinson LLP in January 2006, Stephen Chow was a partner with the firm Perkins Smith & Cohen LLP. He started practice in New York at Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine.

Over three decades of practice, Mr. Chow has developed numerous patent portfolios and strategies for chemical, electrical, information technology and life sciences enterprises, litigated patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, antitrust, unfair competition, international trade, telecommunications and e-commerce cases before state and federal courts and agencies. Mr. Chow has coordinated or served as an expert in litigation before foreign tribunals. He has also advised manufacturers, telecommunications carriers, commercial exchanges and educational, financial and research institutions on commercial, legislative and regulatory matters, particularly in internal policies and development of new services and products, as well as in early-stage financing. Mr. Chow sees himself as a strategist and trouble-shooter for technology companies in financial, governance and intellectual property disputes and development.

Appointed by Governor Weld in 1995, and reappointed by subsequent administrations, as a Massachusetts Uniform Law Commissioner, Mr. Chow served on the National Conference's drafting committees on the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (formerly UCC 2B) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act and its study committees on Internet taxation, on protection of genetic information, and discovery of electronic evidence. He was a member of Governor Cellucci's E-Government Task Force and of the Massachusetts legislature's Science and Technology Caucus.

Reporting on electronic evidence issues, Mr. Chow has acted as a special master in cases before the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 2003, he was appointed by Governor Romney to the Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Commission, on which he served through 2005.

Since 1995, Mr. Chow has taught corporate, intellectual property and litigation practice at Suffolk University Law School, including the perennial “Counseling Technology-Leading Emerging Enterprises.” In 1997, he was elected to the American Law Institute, for which he has been active on committees on corporate, employment, intellectual property and international law.

Mr. Chow writes extensively on commercial and intellectual property law, including the treatises, E-Commerce and Communications, International Computer Law, and Law of the Internet published by Matthew Bender/LexisNexis.

Memberships:

American Law Institute (elected 1997), active on committees on corporate, employment, intellectual property and international law.
Massachusetts Uniform Law Commission (since 1995)
Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Bar Association Business Law Section Council (2008-2010)
Massachusetts Judicial Nominating Commission (2003-05)
Boston Bar Association, Executive Management Board
Boston Bar Association, Education Committee
Boston Bar Association, Intellectual Property Law Section Steering Committee
Boston Bar Association, Public Policy Committee, Co-Chair
Boston Bar Association, Council (1995-97)
Copyright Society of the USA, Trustee (2002-05)
Massachusetts Bar Association, Business Law Section Council (1994 - present)
Asian-American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts, Director (since 1998)
Licensing Executives Society, Chair of the Internet and E-Commerce Committee
Association for Computing Machinery
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Volunteer Lawyers Association, Board of Directors
Massachusetts Bar Association House of Delegates for Suffolk County (2009-2011)
Massachusetts legislature's Science and Technology Caucus
Governor Cellucci's E-Government Task Force, former member

Additional Information:

In 2009, Mr. Chow was accepted by the United States Department of State as a United States delegate to Working Group 6 (Secured Transactions) of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), coordinating the international development of secured lending law with a view to intellectual property interests.
Adjunct Faculty, Suffolk University School of Law, "Intellectual Property Litigation", "Counseling Technology-Leading Emerging Enterprises" (since 1995)
General counsel National Association of Asian-American Professionals, Boston Chapter (since 2004)
Host of AALAM quarterly program "Entrepreneurship and Technology" Legal Line show that airs live monthly.
Guggenheim Fellow,Princeton University, Forrestal Laboratory (controlled nuclear fusion project 1975-76)

Education:

J.D., Columbia University School of Law, Stone Scholar, 1979
S.M., Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Applied Physics, 1975
A.B., Harvard College, Physics and Philosophy, cum laude, 1974
Brooklyn Technical High School, Salutatorian, 1970

Awards:

The Martindale-Hubbell legal directory has given Mr. Chow an “AV” peer-rating, its highest, since 1990.
Mr. Chow was selected for inclusion in Massachusetts Super Lawyers® (2006, 2005 and 2004). Super Lawyers and Rising Stars employ an annual jurisdictional selection process. Only five percent of lawyers in the state were selected to the Super Lawyers list and 2.5 percent to the Rising Stars list. The listing appears annually in the November issue of Boston magazine and in New England Super Lawyers.

Quotes:

2/15/2013, Bloomberg BNA - States, Uniform Law Drafting Team Ponder Access Rules for Decedents' Digital Estates
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Amy E. Bivins.
10/17/2012, New England In-House - Jurors on federal patent case not the usual suspects
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Eric T. Berkman.
9/28/2012, Boston Business Journal - Drugmakers braced for long-term IP battle
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Jay Fitzgerald.
8/30/2012, Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly - Jurors on patent case not the usual suspects
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Eric T. Berkman.
8/21/2012, New England Cable News NECN - Apple v. Samsung case
Stephen Chow talks with NECN on this multi-billion dollar law suit between Apple and Samsung.
2/12/2010, Boston Business Journal - The money question: Recession highlights long-simmering issue of costs
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Mary K. Pratt.
10/9/2009, Boston Herald - Phoenix sues online giant Facebook over Web technology patent
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Jay Fitzgerald.
9/21/2009, The National Law Journal - TestMasters agrees to pay more than $1M to settle dispute over LSAT license
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Sheri Qualters.
9/11/2009, E-Commerce Times - DoJ Puts Microhoo Under the Microscope
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Erika Morphy.
6/20/2008, InfoWorld - Non-compete pacts called bad for tech innovation
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Chris Kanarakus.
6/13/2008, Boston Business Journal - Bases to cover before you put the 'for sale' sign
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Catherine Williams.
12/1/2006, Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers Journal - Beyond the Headlines: IBM sues Amazon for refusing to negotiate patent license fees
Stephen Chow and Bruce Jobse were both quoted in this article by Andrea R. Barter, Esq.
10/20/2006, Newburyport Current - Escaping the Blog Bog
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Ulrika G. Gerth.
7/3/2006, MA Lawyers Weekly - Not Welcome at the Bar?
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Noah Schaffer, which focused on foreign lawyers sitting on the Bar Examination.
3/31/2006, Boston Business Journal - Record keeping the key to protecting the firm's IP
Stephen Chow was quoted in this article by Sheri Qualters.
3/6/2006, Momentum - Managing IP Assets
Stephen Chow was interviewed by Paula Jacobs on February 13, 2006 for the Microsoft.com online magazine, Momentum, on Managing IP Assets.
2/22/2006 - AALAM Legaline
On February 22, 2006 Stephen Chow hosted the Asian-American Lawyers of Massachusetts ("AALAM") Legaline show, which aired live. The show was the first in a quarterly series on "Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property" and began with a discussion of business organization with AALAM director, Jan-Yung Lin of Goodwin Procter.

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Recent Articles and Publications:

International Computer Law
Matthew Bender/Lexis-Nexis Publishing, 2008 - present
Updated semi-annually

The Law of the Internet
Matthew Bender/Lexis-Nexis Publishing, 2009 - present
Updated annually

E-Commerce and Communications
Matthew Bender/Lexis Nexis Publishing, 2002 - 2008
Updated semi-annually

Speaking Engagements:

Uniform Law Commission 2013 Annual Meeting, 7.6.2013
Location: Boston, MA
Role: Host
Stephen Chow is a member of the Host Committee for this event.

Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Program, 3.19.2013
Role: Chair
Topic: Fundamentals of Software Licensing

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Licensing Executives Society - Boston Chapter Meeting, 3.12.2013
Location: Burns & Levinson LLP, 125 Summer Street, Boston MA
Role: Speaker
Topic: Financing or Insuring Intellectual Property Enforcement/Defense

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Massachusetts Bar Association CLE, 1.29.2013
Location: Massachusetts Bar Association – Boston, MA
Role: Speaker
Topic: Lifecycle of a Business Part II: Land Use/Permitting, Insurance Considerations & Business Financing

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