Intellectual Property Attorneys

Steven J. Hultquist
Founder & Principal print this page

Steven J. Hultquist Founder & Principal

Hultquist, PLLC

Steven J. Hultquist, the founder of Hultquist, PLLC, is a member of the bars of the states of New York, North Carolina, California, and Connecticut, and has been registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 1976. He holds Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Chemical Engineering from Washington University (St. Louis), and a law degree from Fordham University (New York City).

Mr. Hultquist was an Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University from 1995 to 1997, and has been the Intellectual Property author for the North Carolina General Practice Deskbook since 1996. His chapter on Intellectual Property in the 1997 North Carolina General Practice Deskbook was recognized by a "Project of the Year" award by the American Bar Association, presented at the American Bar Association's 1999 Annual Meeting.

Mr. Hultquist is a frequent speaker for Continuing Legal Education programs and entrepreneurship programs, as well as having published in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, Genetic Engineering News, Nature Biotechnology, and other journals and publications. He presented on biomarkers as intellectual property at the 2010 program “Personalized Medicine in the 21st Century” sponsored by RTI International and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and was a speaker on U.S. nanotechnology patenting at Nanotech 2009 in Houston.

In October, 2004, Mr. Hultquist was a principal speaker at Jumpstarting Business Relationships with the Western Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry, at the Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Pushchino, Russia, where he presented eight hours of lectures on securing rights in intellectual property and licensing of patents and technology. This program, funded by the Nuclear Threat Initiative and coordinated by the Center for Strategic International Studies (Washington, DC), was presented to bioweapons scientists of the former Soviet Union, as part of ongoing efforts to redirect their expertise to commercial biotechnology and anti-terrorism applications.

Mr. Hultquist’s publications include “Patenting bioinformatics inventions: Emerging trends in the United States,” Nature Biotechnology, Vol. 20 (July 2002), pp. 743-744, “Reach-Through Royalties: The Scope of Research Tool Patents,” Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society, Vol. 86, No. 4, April 2004; and “Statistical Musings,” Intellectual Property Today, May, 2007.

Mr. Hultquist is a member of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society, and is an inventor on a number of U.S. Patents, including: "Dopant Delivery System for Semiconductor Manufacture," U.S. Patent 4,936,877, "Amorphous Metal-Ceramic Composite Material," U.S. Patent 5,543,187, "Adsorbent-Based Storage and Dispensing System," U.S. Patent 6,070,576, “Sorbent-Based Gas Storage And Delivery System for Dispensing High Purity Gas,” U.S. Patent 6,132,492, “Fluid Storage and Dispensing System, U.S. Patent 6,360,546, “Fluid Storage Storage and Dispensing System,” U.S. Patent 6,474,076, and “Channelized Sorbent Media, and Methods of Making Same,” U.S. Patent 6,764,755.

Mr. Hultquist was selected to the 2011 Legal Elite of North Carolina's best lawyers, as identified by their peers in balloting of more than 20,000 active members of the North Carolina State Bar. Lawyers voted for those they rated as the best in 14 business-related specialties. The select group of 598 winners represented less than 3% of North Carolina lawyers.

Mr. Hultquist has litigation experience as an intellectual property expert witness in U.S. District Court and state court proceedings. He has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and filed briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in patent matters.  His patent practice is concentrated in biotechnology, chemistry, materials science and microelectronics, and includes technology assessment, technology transfer, and contested matters.

In March, 2016, Mr. Hultquist argued the first ever AIA trial proceeding at the Silicon Valley Regional Patent Office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in San Jose, California, and his arguments there prevailed in the subsequent appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Hultquist has argued before the USPTO Patent Trial and Appeal Board in various inter partes review proceedings, and in January, 2017 his argument before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Appeal 2015-002092) in an ex parte appeal resulted in a reversal of all grounds of rejection involving 67 patent claims in a key LED patent application of a major optoelectronics technology client.