Stephen L. Levine
Partner
I bring extensive experience, resolute persistence, and an absolute commitment to mastering new technology to my practice. Making our clients’ lives easier by solving their problems and protecting their interests is highly gratifying. I strive to lessen their burdens so they can focus on their businesses and responsibilities.
Throughout his 35-plus years as an intellectual property lawyer, Steve Levine has applied a rich combination of legal skills, technological prowess, and business acumen to serve clients. Steve advises on business transactions and patent and trademark issues globally and provides copyright counseling. He also represents clients in the Patent and Trademark and Copyright Offices as well as in federal courts.
In recent years, Steve has handled many trademark/trade dress cases — an area that’s increasingly important in a world dominated by advertising, strong brands, and consumer impressions. He enjoys helping companies grow and protect the crucial public-facing symbols of their businesses. For more than a decade, he has acted as sole outside U.S. trademark counsel, also interacting internationally and routinely with various foreign counsel, for a Fortune 250 technology company.
A former intern with NASA’s space program and a self-described lifelong “tinkerer,” Steve draws on his electrical engineering background and decades of professional interaction with scientists and innovators to assist inventors in securing and protecting what has advanced into several hundreds of patents. They encompass an array of areas, including electronic devices and systems; semiconductor circuits, devices, and fabrication; processor and memory architectures; signal processing; telecommunications; software systems and methods; electromechanical and mechanical systems; consumer devices; and biomedical devices. Steve also represents clients on both sides of patent claims in court. His co-counsel litigation experience includes matters involving military devices, electronic memories, large-scale software systems, consumer devices, and design patents.
Although he works in the world of cutting-edge technology, Steve equally appreciates the human component. He builds strong relationships and friendships with clients and others and gets along with people from all kinds of backgrounds. In a room with people of multiple disciplines, or with a client, reader, witness, or judge, Steve feels comfortable interacting with everyone.
Describing himself as fluent in the three “languages” of science, marketing, and law, Steve often acts as an interpreter of sorts, bridging the gaps in people’s comprehension of these areas. As a perpetual student, he devotes a great deal of time to mastering new technology so he can explain concepts to non-scientists in clear, understandable terms.
Prior to joining Carrington Coleman, Steve worked for prestigious law firms, including Baker Botts and Vinson & Elkins. Along with two colleagues from Vinson & Elkins, he co-founded a firm they built and led successfully over the next two decades. At Carrington, he works with colleagues both within and outside intellectual property when needed but primarily stays “in the trenches” to ensure his clients get hands-on outstanding personal service at reasonable fees.
Outside of Work
In addition to tinkering with gadgets, cars, home improvement, and otherwise working with his hands on various projects, Steve enjoys playing tennis.
- Intellectual Property
- Litigation, Disputes, Appeals
- Technology & Innovation
- Drafted and/or prosecuted hundreds of patent applications over a 35-year period for a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company.
- Comparable legal work for myriad midsize companies and individual inventors.
- Advising/drafting/revising on myriad technology rights issues, including ownership and licensing thereof.
- Outside counsel managing domestic and foreign trademark portfolio for a Fortune 250 corporation.
- Co- and lead counsel in pleadings, motion, hearing, and discovery practice in both offensive and defensive representation in utility and design patents and trademark/trade dress litigation matters, including in federal district courts in Texas, Mississippi, New York, and before the ITC, PTAB, and TTAB.
Education
- The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, J.D., 1988
- The University of Texas at Austin, B.S., Electrical Engineering, with honors, 1985
Bar + Court Admissions
- Licensed in Texas
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- The Best Lawyers in America® (BL Rankings), Patent Law, 2021-2026
- Lawyer of the Year, Patent Law, The Best Lawyers in America® (BL Rankings), 2024
- Leading Litigators in America, Intellectual Property Litigation, Esp. Trademark, Lawdragon 500, 2023-2025
- Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society
- Eta Kappa Nu, International Electrical and Computer Engineering Honor Society of the IEEE
- Member, State Bar of Texas; Intellectual Property Section
