Claire Superfine Schneider

Claire Superfine Schneider is Counsel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Office of the General Counsel, a position she has held since September 2018. In this in-house role, her practice areas encompass intellectual property, sponsored research, conflict of interest, entrepreneurial activities, and academic and business transactions. She provides legal advice on the management and licensing of MIT's intellectual property, including inventions, software, copyrighted material, patents, and trademarks, as well as advising on technology transfer activities.

Ms. Schneider primarily represents institutional defendants, as evidenced by her role as in-house counsel for Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the patent litigation case Unified Patents LLC v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [cite: tracked case] Unified Patents is known for challenging non-practicing entity (NPE) patents, indicating Ms. Schneider's involvement in defending operating companies or institutions against such assertions. Prior to joining MIT, she was an attorney in the Licensing and Technology Transactions Practice at Mintz Levin, where she advised on complex commercial transactions involving technology and intellectual property. Her earlier career included roles as a litigator at Mintz Levin and an IP litigator at WilmerHale.

Her experience also extends to the realm of post-grant proceedings, given that Unified Patents, the plaintiff in her tracked case, frequently files Inter Partes Reviews (IPRs) to challenge patent validity. While her current in-house focus leans towards transactional intellectual property matters, her background includes IP litigation.

Ms. Schneider earned her J.D. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Law and her undergraduate degree cum laude from Dartmouth College. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Richard G. Stearns in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and for the Honorable Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall and the Honorable Associate Justice Fernande Duffly of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.