About Edward J. Radlo

Patent & Export Control Law Partner

Edward J. Radlo

Patent & Export Control Law Partner

Ed is a highly experienced patent attorney who represents many prominent corporations, universities, and individuals. Ed engages in patent and trademark prosecution, licensing, export control compliance, and patent litigation in the fields of telecommunications, computer hardware and software, data security, cryptography, and semiconductor processing. He successfully represented the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in litigation defending MIT’s famous RSA patent, the basic patent in public key cryptography. He has authored over 45 publications in cryptography and the law, patent harmonization, and other topics; and has given over 50 lectures at legal and scientific symposia.

Ed has a particular interest in international patenting, and has worked with the American Bar Association in this area for many years. He represented the ABA at the Diplomatic Conference to Adopt the Patent Law Treaty, held in Geneva, Switzerland. He is proficient in French.

He was formerly a partner with Fenwick & West LLP and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, and the Patent Counsel of Ford Aerospace Corporation. He served as a law clerk on the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. 

Ed has dedicated his professional career to helping individuals, startups, established corporations, and universities protect, develop, and monetize their intellectual property, and comply with export control laws. The following are among the clients he has represented:

  • Apple
  • Canon
  • Ford
  • Space Systems/Loral
  • MIT
  • Stanford University
  • Washington University
  • Symantec
  • Cryptography Research
  • Direct Flow Medical
  • Cool Dry
  • Jerome Svigals
  • Robert Lewis Jackson, Jr.
  • Vadium
  • Innovar
  • BroadSpot Imaging
  • Harvard Law School, J.D.
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S., Mathematics (High Dean’s List)
  • Northern California SuperLawyers
  • Guide to the World’s Leading Patent Law Practitioners
  • Who’s Who in the World
  • Who’s Who in America
  • Who’s Who in American Law
  • Radlo & Su was named “California Patent Law Firm of the Year 2012”
    by Acquisition International
  • State Bar of California
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  • State Bar of Rhode Island (inactive)
  • Canadian Patent Bar (inactive) 

Since the age of 13, Ed has been a contest, DX, and emergency communications amateur radio operator. He has made and confirmed two-way radio contacts with all the countries of the world. He has placed as high as third in the world in a major international radio contest.

Cylink, Inc. v. RSA Data Security, Inc. et al., U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, case no. C94-02332 MMC (Judge Maxine M. Chesney).  Patent litigation regarding the RSA patent, the basic patent in public key cryptography. Represented the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the owner of the patent in suit, and a third party intervenor in the lawsuit. Took depositions; attended pre-trial conference; edited brief. Our team upheld the validity of MIT’s patent. This enabled MIT to continue to collect royalties for the life of the patent, and enabled RSA Data Security, Inc. to establish a foothold in the then-nascent field of commercial encryption. This patent was very significant, as it was the basic patent in public key cryptography. An example of the importance of this technology is the fact that confidential communications over the Internet would not be possible without public key cryptography. Software covered by this patent is the most widely used software in history.

Hughes Aircraft Co. v. Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp., U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, case no. 86-1475 JHG (Judge Joyce Hens Green); Hughes Aircraft Co. v. United States, U.S. Claims Court, case no. 426-73 (Judge James T. Turner). Patent litigation regarding the Williams patent, a “pioneer patent” covering spin stabilization of manmade satellites. Took depositions; devised in-house strategy. The litigation settled for client Ford Aerospace & Communications Corp. on favorable terms. The Williams patent was one of the most valuable litigated patents up to that time, as Hughes won a judgment of $112,000,000 from the U.S. Government in the Claims Court portion of the litigation. It was also a very lengthy dispute – the invention was made in 1959, and the U.S. Supreme Court was still deciding remnants of the case in the year 1999.

Sangamo Weston, Inc. v. Varian Associates, Inc.; Sangamo Weston, Inc. v. Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp.; Weston Instruments, Inc. v. Systron-Donner Corp., et al.; U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, case numbers C-77-2810 RFP, C-77-2809 RFP, and C-74-1000 (Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham). Patent litigation involving analog-to-digital converters. Delivered oral argument in federal district court; authored brief. The litigation settled for client Varian Associates on favorable terms. 

  • “Implementation of the Patent Law Treaty in the United States”, New Matter, Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California, Vol. 35, No. 2, Summer 2010
  • “US Encryption Export Regulations Enter the Twenty-First Century”, The Computer Lawyer, Vol. 17, No. 6, June 2000
  • “E is for Encryption, E is for Exports”, The Economic Times of India, May 6, 2000
  • “Secret Bits”, San Francisco Daily Journal, p. 5, March 17, 2000
  • “U.S. Encryption Policy Update”, Intellectual Property Counselor, No. 34, October 1999
  • “Three-Step Liberalization Policy Initiated”, Cyberspace Lawyer, Vol. 3, No. 10, January 1999
  • “Protecting E-Mail: Navigating the Legal Limits on Encryption”, I.P. Strategist, Vol. 4, No. 10, July 1998
  • “Legal Issues in Cryptography”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, No. 1318 (Springer Verlag), 1997
  • “Recent Developments Affect International Patent Harmony”, San Francisco Daily Journal, August 25, 1993
  • “Patent Law Harmonization”, Upside, April 1992
  • “The Time to Harmonize is Now”, New Matter, Intellectual Property Law Section of the State Bar of California, Vol. 17, No. 1, Spring 1992
  • “Prosecution of Electronic and Computer Patent Applications”, Proceedings of the Practising Law Institute’s Conference on Electronic and Computer Patent Law, March 1990
  • “Export Control Issues in Patent Prosecution”, Stafford Webinars, August 3, 2017
  • “Export Control Certification Requirements on CIS’s I-129 Form”, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Santa Clara, California, March 25, 2011
  • “Is the Patent Law Treaty Right for the United States?” IP Society, Palo Alto, California, July 8, 2010
  • “Implementation of the Patent Law Treaty in the United States”, Palo Alto Area Bar Association, Palo Alto, California, May 26, 2010
  • “The Patent Law Treaty”, Golden Gate University Law School, San Francisco, California, September 11, 2009
  • “Creating, Managing, and Exploiting a Corporate IP Portfolio”, Association of Corporate Counsel – Bay Area, Small Law Department Roundtable, San Francisco, California, October 2, 2007
  • “Patent and IP Issues for the Silicon Valley Company”, Association of Corporate Counsel – Bay Area, Small Law Department Roundtable, San Francisco, California, June 28, 2006
  • “U.S. Encryption Export Regulations”, Golden Gate University, Graduate School of Business, Los Altos, California, April 11, 2000