Steven G. Schortgen

Partner•Co-Leader, Intellectual Property Practice Group
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Steven Schortgen

Overview

Steve Schortgen is Sheppard’s global co-leader of the Intellectual Property practice group. An experienced intellectual property and computer science trial lawyer, he has first-chaired more than 100 patent cases—in all major patent dockets—and successfully defended clients against more than $3 billion in asserted claims. He has also tried and prevailed more than a dozen times on claims arising out of the design and installation of large-scale information technology systems. Steve also has substantial first-chair experience handling copyright, trade secret and trademark cases.

Clients know Steve as a skilled trial lawyer, with a strong technical background. He quickly masters technical details covering a wide variety of products and communicates effectively with judges and juries. According to Chambers, clients report that “Steve has the ability to take complex matters and distil them into a cogent story that a jury or judge can understand. He is super smooth and explains things in an eloquent way. He is a tremendous asset and master at this.” Others report “He will go to battle. He is very smart and very good at what he does. He is a good person. I’ve engaged him because he gets outstanding results.”

Steve’s clients include numerous Fortune 100 companies, including in the fields of medical devices, cell phones, laptops and desktops, micro-towers, video cards and display technologies, ethernet peripherals, cameras, lenses, augment reality technologies, submersible cooling arrays for computing farms, computerized security protocols and multi-factor authentication, and other computer-related technologies.

Representative Matters

  • Google Inc. and Motorola Mobility – patent litigation involving navigation technology relating to web browser applications and e-commerce services
  • Automatic Data Processing, Inc. – patent litigation involving simple object access communications protocol
  • Match.com, Evite.com and Expedia.com – patent litigation involving cookie encryption
  • STMicroelectronics, Inc. – patent litigation involving CAD/CAM software for integrated circuits
  • STMicroelectronics, Inc. – patent litigation involving ethernet connectivity adapters
  • Red Lion Hotels Corporation and the Howard Hughes Company – patent litigation involving systems for internet data exchange and display
  • Epic Media – patent litigation involving software and systems for internet affiliate marketing
  • Procter & Gamble – patent and trade secret litigation
  • Northrop Grumman Corporation – patent litigation involving vehicle monitoring software and systems
  • Hewlett Packard – Multiple representations involving dozens of information technology systems and software-as-services
  • Community Trust Bank – patent litigation involving system for data imaging
  • Deutsche Lufthansa AG – patent litigation involving systems for analyzing and processing aircraft maintenance data
  • Advanced Medical Optical – patent lawsuit involving eye surgery products
  • Applica, Inc. – lead trial counsel in ITC section 337 action In the Matter of Certain Self Cleaning Litter Boxes and Components Thereof
  • Custom Food Group – trade secret lawsuit involving food industry, resulting in verdict in CFG’s favor on all counts and bankruptcy of all defendants.
  • Defense of major law firm in patent malpractice lawsuit
  • Erie Management Group – defense of high-profile lawsuit involving device for detection of biological and chemical warfare agents using Raman spectroscopy
  • Tempur-Pedic – multiple trademark lawsuits
  • Dropbox – trademark litigation
  • Fox Television Stations, Inc. – contract and trade secret dispute with another major broadcasting company
  • OsteoMed, L.P. – trade secret lawsuit involving surgical devices
  • Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. – trade secret lawsuit against former employees and multiple startup companies, resulting in complete cessation of business for startup companies
  • BearingPoint, Inc. – high profile litigation against Hawaiian Telecom involving more than 60 information technology systems
  • A national, marquee financial institution – claim against vendor relating to dozens of information technology systems intended to replace all core financial and reporting functions
  • Affiliated Computer Systems – arbitration involving a dozen information technology systems for regional hospital system
  • Electronic Data Systems – dispute involving Navy Marine Corp Intranet
  • Seisint, Inc. – trade secret lawsuit involving computer data warehouses

Education

J.D., Cornell Law School, 1995, magna cum laude; Order of the Coif; Editor, Cornell Law Review; West Outstanding Scholastic Achievement, top four students in class

B.A., Trinity University, 1992, magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa

Admissions

Texas

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

  • Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2026
  • Recommended Lawyer, Intellectual Property: Patent Litigation, Legal 500 US, 2025-2026
  • The World's Leading Patent Professionals, IAM Patent 1000, 2022-2026
  • Selected by D Magazine as one of the "Best Lawyers Under 40" in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 2002 and 2006
  • Litigation - Patent, Best Lawyers in America, 2016, 2020-2026
  • Named by Law & Politics as a "Texas Rising Star," 2004-2006, 2008-2009
Legal 500 Recommended Lawyer 2025

Member, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers

Member, Dallas Bar Associations

Member, various committees, including past President of Young Leader's Society, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas,

  • "The Seven Deadly Sins of Outsourcing Litigation," University of Texas Technology Conference, 2012
  • "Update On Trade Secret Law: Shedding Light on a Marshy Landscape," Texas Bar CLE, 2012
  • "Protecting Your Intellectual Property," State Bar of Texas Essentials of Business Law 2012 forum
  • "Valuation In Complex Intellectual Property Matters," Dallas Bar Association, 2012
  • "Cloud Computing: Lessons from the Trenches," DFW General Counsel’s forum, 2011
  • More than three dozen speeches on electronic discovery and evidence for various continuing legal education seminars, including the State Bar of Texas e-discovery workshop
  • "Developments in Electronic Discovery," U.S. Department of Energy annual contractor’s conference
  • Quoted in "Making Rain on the Net," ABA Journal
  • Quoted in "The Zubulake Road Show," ABA Journal
  • "Intellectual Property and E-Business," Sage U.S. Software Developer's Conference
  • Texas Technology, quoted multiple times on various intellectual property and litigation matters
  • Co-author of more than a half-dozen sections concerning intellectual property claims, Texas Jurisprudence Pleading and Practice Forms, Thomson West, Second Edition, 2001
  • "Two Bites of the Trade Secret Misappropriation Apple," Texas Lawyer, May 2000
  • "Conducting Discovery in America While Winding Up a European Concern," Butterworths Atkin's Court Forms, Second Edition, Volume 10 (British equivalent of Moore's Federal Practice), 2000
  • "The Almost Perfect Crime: Using Misappropriation to Fill the Gaps in Unfair Competition Law," Texas Lawyer, September 1999
  • "Dressing Up Software Interface Protection: The Application of Two Pesos to 'Look and Feel,'" Cornell Law Review (awarded third place in the Brand Names Foundation's national competition for the best overall article in the field of trademark law)
“Clients appreciate Schortgen's commercial focus, skill at trial and ability to communicate complex legal information.”
—
Chambers USA, 2023