David J. Powsner is a partner in the firm's Intellectual Property Department. He focuses his practice in the protection of computer software and hardware.
Dave is particularly known for his legal work in an extensive number and range of successfully patented technologies, his expert assessment of patent claims, his sense for "design-arounds," and his proven counsel in trademark, trade secret, and copyright law. He handles patent prosecution and clearance studies, infringement and validity opinions, trademark prosecution, trade secrets and copyright counseling, licensing, and litigation.
Technologies with which Dave has worked include object-oriented system tools and applications, process parallelization, operating system and multiprocessor debuggers, automated text processing, storage compression, machine vision, gaming software, process controllers, signal processors, beamformers, computer-aided manufacturing, expert systems, remote/fault diagnostics and correction, single and multiprocessor computer architectures, computer array processors, digital data processing backplanes, input/output controllers, memory devices, computer peripherals and accessories, storage area network devices and management, packet switches and routing networks, packetized voice (VOIP), graphical editors, distributed content discovery and management (semantic web), mathematical modeling of business decisions, air-cooled housings, xerographic copier accessories, loudspeakers, IDSN telephony, GSM telephony, magnetic levitation and guidance-based conveyance systems, geophysical prospecting signal processing systems, firearms accessories, and medical devices and diagnostics, among others.
David co-chairs the Software Entrepreneurship and Advanced Computing SIG at the MIT Enterprise Forum and recently chaired a program on Digital Rights Management at the Forum. He co-authored Taxation of Software and Technology: Transactions, Companies, and Products, to be published by Aspen, and serves as co-editor of the Newsletter of the National Council of Intellectual Property Law Associations. He has spoken at many programs on legal issues, ranging from intellectual property law primers, to the implications of open source licensing, to building patent and trademark portfolios.
A lifelong musician, David is studying classical voice and singing in local musical groups as a tenor, following 35+ years of playing bassoon and saxophone.