Stephen Steinberg
Top rated Intellectual Property Litigation attorney in San Francisco, California
Bartko Pavia LLP
Practice areas: Intellectual Property Litigation, Business Litigation, Intellectual Property; view more
Licensed in California since: 2004
Education: University of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Selected to Super Lawyers: 2023 - 2026 
Selected to Rising Stars: 2013 - 2019 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 Pavia LLP, 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.
Practice areas
Intellectual Property Litigation, Business Litigation, Intellectual PropertyFocus areas
Copyrights, Trade Secret, Trademarks
- 50% Intellectual Property Litigation
- 40% Business Litigation
- 10% Intellectual Property
First Admitted: 2004, California
Bar / Professional Activity
- Contra Costa County Bar Association (CCCBA), President, 2014
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Southern Districts of California
- U.S. District Court for the Central Districts of California
- U.S. District Court for the Northern Districts of California
- State Bar of California
- Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL): Secretary of Board of Governors of Northern California
- Conference of California Bar Associations: Member and Former Chair of the CCCBA Delegation
- American Bar Association (ABA): Chair of Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral & Information Service
- CCCBA Communications Committee, Member
- CCCBA Lawyer Referral & Information Service Committee, Vice-Chair
- Contra Costa County Bar Association, Officer and Member of Board of Directors, 2009 - 2015
Verdicts / Settlements (Case Results)
- Stardock v. Reiche, Ford, Northern District of California
- SMC Networks, Inc. v. Netstar Tech. Corp., Central District of California
- Accton Tech. Corp. v. Centillium Communications, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Alameda
- SMC Networks, Inc. v. Hitron Techs., Inc., Hitron Techs. Americas Inc., et al., Central District of California
- Timefire, Inc. v. AQS Engineering, Inc., All Quality & Services, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Alameda
- ASML US, Inc. v. XTAL, Inc., Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara
- CSIRO v. 3Com Corp., D-Link Systems, Inc., Accton Tech. Corp., SMC Networks, Inc., Eastern District of Texas
- Northpeak Wireless LLC v. SMC Networks, Inc., Northern District of California
- Synqor, Inc. v. Lineage Power Corp. & Cherokee International Corp. / Lineage Power Corp. v. Synqor, Inc., Eastern District of Texas
- Nichia Corp. v. Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., Eastern District of Texas
- Trustees of Boston University v. Epistar Corp., Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd., Lite-On, Inc., District of Massachusetts
- 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
- Uncommon, LLC v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Northern District of Illinois
- Case-Mate, Inc. v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Northern District of Georgia
- Spiraledge, Inc. v. SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc., Southern District of California
- Apollo Future Tech., Inc. v. Taqseem, Inc., Northern District of California
- Sahara Afghani Gourmet Foods, Inc. v. East & West Gourmet Afghan Foods, Trademark Trial and Appeals Board
- Comprehensive Industrial Disability Management, Inc. v. Chopra Consulting, LLC, Arvinder Chopra, et al., Northern District of California
- Petranovic v. Casetagram Ltd. d/b/a Casetify, Central District of California
Honors
- Magna Cum Laude, 2003, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
- Northern California Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2013 - 2019, Super Lawyer
- Winner of Best Oral Advocate award, University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Scholarly Lectures / Writings
- 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
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law, Hastings Law Journal, Member
- ABA LRIS Standing Committee Launches National Data Survey of Programs ABA Dialogue Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2017)
- From the Chair... ABA Dialogue Magazine, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 2017)
- Local Idea: National Impact Contra Costa Lawyer, October 2018
- Comments from the Chair ABA Lawyer Referral and Information Service (LRIS) (Summer 2019)
- Class Actions, Data Breach, and Privacy Litigation Update author, Chapter 1: “Challenges of Privacy Compliance and Litigation” (CEB California Privacy 2022-2023)
- Healthcare Companies
- Technology Startups
Selections
- Super Lawyers: 2023 - 2026
- Rising Stars: 2013 - 2019
