About Steven William
Steven William Smyrski is an attorney specializing in intellectual property and antitrust law, based in Santa Monica, California. He has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1992. He earned his Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law in 1992. Prior to law school, he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 1982 and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 1986. Mr. Smyrski has over 25 years of experience in all phases of intellectual property law, including patent prosecution and litigation, technology license drafting and negotiation, enforcement and infringement avoidance strategies, patent portfolio evaluations, infringement/validity analyses. Design around of U.S. patents. He has personally drafted over 400 original U.S. patent applications in diverse fields such as telecommunications hardware and software, semiconductor design, fabrication.
Inspection, medical devices, signal processing components, computer hardware and software, neural networks, exercise equipment, and business methods. In addition to his patent work, Mr. Smyrski has litigated various intellectual property disputes, including asserting and defending over ten patents for a large telecommunications manufacturer, litigating patents covering graphics accelerator chips. Pursuing patent, antitrust, and state law claims against a racing car clutch manufacturer. He acted as lead outside intellectual property counsel in the $950 million acquisition of the printing division of a computer printer manufacturer and has rendered opinions regarding the scope of certain patents. Mr. Smyrski has served as a judge in the annual Pepperdine Intellectual Property Moot Court competition and acted as liaison for the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Lawyers Association (LAIPLA) intellectual property discussion with Loyola Law School students. He has also been an instructor on patent and intellectual property law at the University of Southern California and Southwestern Law School. He served as a Director in the Los Angeles Intellectual Property Lawyers Association in 2023 and 2024. He was Counsel of Record representing the California Society of Entertainment Lawyers (CSEL) in two Amicus Briefs filed in support of Petitioner Paula Petrella in the case Petrella v.
MGM, 134 S. Ct. 1962 (2014). He was personally mentioned in an online article published by Variety Magazine for his work on the Petrella case. He was also Counsel of Record in three other U.S. Supreme Court Petitions for Certiorari: Kirby v. Marvel Properties, U.S. Supreme Court Case No. 13-1178, representing Evanier, Morrow, and PEN Center USA; Shuster v. DC Comics, Supreme Court Case No.
13-1523, representing the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, et al.; and InvestPic, LLC v. SAP America, Inc., Supreme Court Case No. 18-1199, representing ten separate amici. Mr. Smyrski is a Managing Director of AQUA Licensing, LLC, a firm founded to assist companies in strategically leveraging their intellectual property assets in the sale or recapitalization of their operations. He previously served as Senior Counsel in the Intellectual Property Group of Pillsbury Winthrop, an international general practice firm. Began his legal career as an associate at Poms, Smith, Lande & Rose, a patent and intellectual property firm in Los Angeles. Before law school, Mr. Smyrski was an engineer for over eight years for two Southern California defense contractors: Hughes Aircraft Company (F-14 weapons system engineer) and Northrop Corporation (B-2 autopilot engineer). He is a professional musician (bass guitar) and has interests in sports, particularly weightlifting and bodybuilding.
