Joe Teja

For almost 20 years, Joe Teja has been helping companies of all sizes, as well as academic institutions, to develop intellectual property protection strategies for electronics, photonics, electromechanical, computer-related, medtech and cleantech innovations. Examples of technologies for which Joe has counseled clients on IP issues include semiconductor materials and fabrication, optical devices, machine vision, robotics, biomedical imaging, digital health, controlled environment agriculture, distributed ledger trustless authentication, Internet data security, electric vehicles, photovoltaics, telecommunications, GPS-based intelligent instrumentation, energy demand management and energy-efficient intelligent lighting technologies.

Prior to practicing as a lawyer, Joe was an electrical engineer, optics researcher and inventor; his first-hand experience working on the bench and in the lab provides clients with a pragmatic and intuitive approach to IP.  In recent editions of Chambers, Joe has been praised by clients for his “very knowledgeable and very conscientious” approach to patent law. Prior to establishing the Boston office of Smith Baluch with Max Colice, Joe was a partner at Cooley, Foley & Lardner, and Wolf Greenfield.

Some of Joe’s representative matters include:

• Providing strategic advice on the development and management of an industry-dominant patent portfolio for a solid-state lighting company, leading to a favorable acquisition by a global leader.
• Rapidly developing a comprehensive IP portfolio (200+ patent filings in 18 months) for a specialty contracting services provider to the telecommunication and utility infrastructure industries.
• Representing one of the world’s most prestigious research universities to develop IP protection in multiple engineering, materials, photonics, software, communications and medtech disciplines.
• Representing a healthcare tech company in patent counseling and prosecution relating to stretchable electronics for human biometric sensing and healthcare analytics.
• Counseling clients regarding expedited prosecution options based on innovative use of Patent Prosecution Highway programs.
• Conducting IP due diligence on behalf of multiple investors in various fields, including semiconductor fabrication processes, optical devices and optical signal processing.
• Conducting multiple venture-backed startup companies on strategic protection of primary technologies to facilitate further investment and enhance valuation.
• Representing a major Japanese electronics company in patent litigation relating to digital image-sensing technologies.

Education

• Suffolk University Law School
  JD, 2001
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  MS, 1997, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Rutgers University
  BS, 1995, Electrical Engineering

Bar Admissions

• Massachusetts