Steven M. Balcof

Mr. Balcof’s practice is focused on the litigation and trial of patent and trade secret disputes.  For over a decade, he has represented both plaintiff- and defense-side clients as counsel in matters pending before district courts around the country, the International Trade Commission, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and other tribunals.  Additionally, Mr. Balcof has represented clients in appeals before the Federal Circuit.
 
Recently, as counsel for Cisco in a dispute with Straight Path IP Group, Mr. Balcof developed the case-dispositive noninfringement defense that prevailed at summary judgment and ultimately led the court to award attorney’s fees to Cisco.  Additionally, as counsel for Cloud9 in a dispute with IPC, Mr. Balcof led his client—a startup cloud communications company—through a trade secret, patent, and antitrust dispute against an established competitor.

In addition, Mr. Balcof leverages his litigation background to counsel clients in several related areas, including patent validity assessments, patent infringement assessments, patent licensing, pre-suit diligence, financial exposure analyses, license disputes, and trade secret misappropriation investigations.

Mr. Balcof’s clients span the various stages of corporate development and technological innovation—from startups to established multinationals.  His experience covers a wide-array of industries, including cellular communications, automobile safety, biologics, centrifuge tubes, database management systems, digital printing, enterprise flash storage systems, server/client communications, software development, street-level image capture, mobile devices, cameras, signal processing, VOIP, mainframe computing, collaboration technology, and web applications.
 
Mr. Balcof first developed an interest in patent law in high school when he identified it as a career path for exploring his interests in technology and advocacy. After earning his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Pennsylvania State University, he received his law degree from Emory University. In law school, he participated in the Technological Innovation: Generating Economic Results, or TI:GER®, program, a collaboration between Emory Law and the Georgia Institute of Technology—the goal of which is to transform start-up projects based on promising research into viable business prospects.
 
Before joining Desmarais LLP, Mr. Balcof was an associate in the Intellectual Property Groups of Ropes & Gray LLP (2011–2015) and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (2015–2017).

Prior Experience

• Associate, Desmarais LLP, New York, New York, 2017-2021
• Associate, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, New York, New York, 2015-2017
• Associate, Ropes & Gray LLP, New York, New York, 2011-2015

Courts

• Unites States District Court for the Southern District of New York
• United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
• United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
• United States Supreme Court

Other Distinctions

• Managing Intellectual Property, IP STARS, Rising Star, 2022-2024