Partner, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Education
BS – Electrical Engineering – United States Air Force Academy
MS – Electrical Engineering – Air Force Institute of Technology
JD – George Washington University (with honors)
Business/Research Background
Mr. Suarez is a partner in Mintz Levin’s San Diego office, practicing in the intellectual property section. His practice is focused on all aspects of patent law, including preparation and prosecution of patent applications, rendering of opinions on infringement and validity, licensing, due diligence investigations, litigation, and client counseling, with an emphasis on software, telecommunications, wireless communications, semiconductors, medical products, image processing, and business methods for the banking and financial industry. Prior to joining Mintz Levin, Mr. Suarez worked for an international intellectual property law firm located in Washington, D.C.
Before beginning his legal career, Mr. Suarez gained over twelve years of technical experience in engineering positions with the U. S. Air Force and technology companies. As an engineer in the Air Force, he developed and tested a variety of advanced image processing and communication systems and gained experience in the semiconductor field while working at KLA Instruments. He also worked as a principal member of the technical staff at Litton/TASC in Annapolis Junction, Maryland, where he consulted on a variety of wired and wireless communication systems and was the lead designer of a major ATM network program.
Particular Knowledge and Skills
Mr. Suarez has extensive experience preparing and prosecuting patents for emerging and high-technology companies, with an eye towards enforcement. He has prosecuted and litigated patents for technologies that include wireless networks; communications protocols; spread spectrum; global systems for mobile communications; virtual private networks; synchronous optical and optical networking; wave division multiplexing; asynchronous transfer modes; network security; coding and compression; liquid crystal displays; database platforms; search tools; data mining; web-based advertising; medical products; and image processing for drug discovery. Mr. Suarez has also litigated patent infringement and validity disputes before several U. S. district courts involving multiple patents and complex technologies. Representative cases include Nortel Networks Corp. v. Ciena Corp. (settled in 2003 with a $25 million payment to client Nortel); PCTEL, Inc. v. Broadcom Corp.; Tektronix, Inc. v. LeCroy Corp.; UTStarcom, Inc. v. Starent Networks Corp.; and Telcordia v. Alcatel.
Mr. Suarez is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California and also before the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is a member of the American Intellectual Property Association and the San Diego Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserves.