Experience

• Has handled numerous patent and trade secret litigations covering a wide range of technologies, including: pharmaceuticals, biological/chemical assay methods and devices, non-invasive thermometry, x-ray inspection systems, disambiguation/clustering software, machine learning image analysis, fire-detector mapping software, caching software, chip technology, fluorescent lighting, mobile payment processing, military training simulators, data security, and fruit processing methods.
• Possesses special expertise in the economic analysis of patent infringement cases.
• Has represented clients in domestic and international contract disputes, including licenses, commission arrangements, collaboration agreements, confidentiality clauses, inventors’ agreements, and indemnities.
• Has wide experience in all aspects of trademark and copyright protection and litigation, representing firms in courts and before the Patent and Trademark Office and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
• Has handled trade dress disputes involving electric fans, cellphone cases, user interfaces, musical instruments, food packaging, and athletic shoes, among other things.
• Litigated novel issues on behalf of a web-hosting company, including the extent of long-arm jurisdiction over an out-of-state operator and remedies available for unfair business practices arising from conduct on the Internet.
• Successfully represented a California company in a dispute, alleging misappropriation of proprietary software, that established a Massachusetts standard for a plaintiff’s duty to disclose his trade secrets at the outset of pretrial discovery.
• Joel has co-written books on copyright enforcement and limits on commercial speech.
• Has spoken on panels sponsored by bar associations on non-competition disputes, trade secret law, and international arbitration.

Professional and Community Involvement

• Active participant in early-education literacy programs in Boston public schools.
• Has played in a softball double-header every Sunday of the spring, summer and fall for over 30 years.
• Formerly an instructor of advanced Hebrew language at Brandeis while pursuing his graduate studies.

Honors

• Joel was named to the Super Lawyers® list in the practice area of intellectual property 2004-2020 in Massachusetts, a list limited to the top 5 percent of attorneys in each region. The attorneys featured in Super Lawyers were selected by their peers in an extensive nomination and polling process conducted by the research team at Super Lawyers, a service of Thomson Reuters and seen in a special advertising section in Boston magazine.
• Named to the 2016-2018 New England Super Lawyers Top 100 List, a listing of 100 lawyers who received the highest point totals in the Massachusetts nomination, research and blue ribbon review process.

Recent Publications

Protecting and Enforcing Copyright, MCLE New England, 4th ed. 2014 (co-written with Lisa Tittemore).

“What Can I Say? Leeway and Legal Limits in Commercial Speech: A Primer on Defamation, Commercial Disparagement and False Advertising,” American Bar Association (Spring 2009) (co-written with Julia Huston).

Massachusetts Trade Secret Protections Are About to Resemble Everyone Else’s. That Brings Changes that Businesses Should Know About.—August 22, 2018

Litigate Your Trademark Rights With Care, No Matter what Forum You’re In—February 16, 2018

Give Me a ©! Supreme Court Examines Cheerleader Uniforms and Gives Designers a Means to Protect Their Creations—April 10, 2017

Litigator’s Perspective- I’ve a Hunch You’re Stealing My Invention: Low Standard Prevails for Alleging Patent Infringement—May 9, 2013

Do-Nothing Congress Manages to Crack Down on Trade Secret Thieves—January 17, 2013

Not the Cadillac of Trade Secrets, But Still Deserving of Protection—January 19, 2012

Bar and Court Admissions

• Admitted to the Massachusetts bar, as well as the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeal, the Federal Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.