Holland & Knight LLP Expands Tampa Intellectual Property Practice

Business Wire, August 29, 2000

Business Editors

TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2000

Holland & Knight LLP announced that Stefan Stein, Sara Schifino, Harvey Kauget, Michael Colitz, III, and Leon Chasan have joined the firm's intellectual property practice group in Tampa. The five lawyers, formerly of the Stein, Schifino & Van Der Wall firm in Tampa, practice intellectual property law, including patent, trademark, unfair competition, copyrights, trade secret, Internet, e-commerce, computer law, and related licensing and litigation.

Each of these attorneys has an engineering or science degree, as well as a law degree. All are patent attorneys registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, in addition to patent prosecution before the USPTO, are regularly engaged in extensive intellectual property litigation in state and federal courts throughout the United States.

"The addition of these new lawyers is part of a firmwide strategy to continue to expand our capacity to serve businesses in the technology sector, which is of growing importance in the Tampa Bay area," stated Mike Jamieson, chairman of Holland & Knight's Business Law Department.

Stefan V. Stein, who joins Holland & Knight as a partner, has been lead trial counsel in dozens of intellectual property law cases, including bench and jury trials, arbitrations and administrative hearings. He has also served as an expert, testifying at trial in numerous intellectual property law cases. Mr. Stein is certified in Business Litigation by The Florida Bar. He is listed in the Intellectual Property Law section of The Best Lawyers in America. He holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He focuses his patent, trademark and copyright prosecution practice on high-tech electrical, electronic, computer and Internet technologies.

Sara A. Schifino, joining Holland & Knight as an associate, holds a B.S. in biology from the College of William and Mary and received her J.D. and an Environmental Law Certificate from Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College. Her practice focuses on patent, trademark and copyright procurement and related licensing and litigation. Schifino also advises clients regarding emerging issues relating to the Internet, including business model patents and domain name disputes. Schifino has been a speaker at numerous seminars on a variety of topics including trademark and copyright protection. She is a member of The Florida Bar, Oregon Bar and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Harvey Kauget joins Holland & Knight as an associate. Mr. Kauget has handled several intellectual property law cases, including hearings, jury trials, mediations, and appeals. In addition, Mr. Kauget has extensive experience as an engineer. Specifically, Mr. Kauget has done research and development employing gallium arsenide and silicon semiconductors in a wide variety of technologies; and has done research and development in the use of x-ray sensors for medical imaging. Mr. Kauget holds a B.S. in Chemistry and a M.S. in Materials Engineering from the State University of New York and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively. He is a member of The Florida Bar, New York Bar, New Jersey Bar and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Michael Colitz, III joins Holland & Knight as an associate. Mr. Colitz graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He also attended Stetson Law School where he served on the Stetson Law Review and graduated second in his class. Prior to law school, Mr. Colitz worked as a Registered Patent Agent for a Washington D.C. law firm, where he was involved in patent infringement and validity studies. Mr. Colitz is a member of The Florida Bar, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Leon Chasan, joins Holland & Knight as of Counsel. Mr. Chasan served as Chief Patent Counsel with Exxon Chemical Company for thirty-five years and negotiated numerous multi-national intellectual property agreements. He was also responsible for overseeing the significant patent portfolio of Exxon Chemical worldwide. Chasan received his J.D. from New York University Law School.

"The addition of this highly respected group will further enhance Holland & Knight's rapidly growing intellectual property group practice. This growth is being driven by our technology, e-commerce, and emerging company clients' increasing needs for intellectual property services. We are very pleased to add these experienced IP attorneys to our team," noted Trey Baldy, who leads Holland & Knight's intellectual property national practice group.

Holland & Knight LLP is a full-service commercial law firm with more than 1100 lawyers in 21 offices throughout the United States. Internationally, offices are located in Mexico City and Tokyo, with representative offices in Buenos Aires and Tel Aviv. The firm is among the 20 largest firms in the world. Holland & Knight LLP provides representation in more than 100 areas of law