Stephen E. Samuel

I'll research this attorney before drafting.

Initial searches didn't surface him. Let me try more targeted queries.

Let me dig further — I need to disambiguate this name and find the specific appearance.

Note on sourcing: The structured case list is the only item I could confirm. Targeted web searches did not surface a firm bio, bar record, or docket entry for "Stephen E. Samuel" of Scheef & Stone, and there is a clear name-collision risk with I. Stephen Samuels, a Boston trademark attorney (Samuels & Hiebert LLC) — a different practitioner. The paragraphs below separate what is verified from what is not.

Specialty / focus areas. Only one matter is tracked, and it is a data-storage and computing-systems case rather than a communications-standards or life-sciences matter. In Valtrus Innovations Ltd. et al. v. NetApp, Inc., No. 2:25-cv-00517 (E.D. Tex., filed May 9, 2025, before Judge Rodney Gilstrap), the asserted patents cover enterprise storage and cluster technologies — storage device performance monitoring ('832), hot deployment/redeployment in grid computing ('332), cluster licensing ('416), and related migration and storage-management patents ('488, '686, '571). Accused products identified in the related NetApp declaratory-judgment action include ONTAP, SANtricity/E-Series, and Trident with Kubernetes. Any broader technology profile cannot be inferred from a single appearance.

Side preference. One tracked appearance, plaintiff side (1 plaintiff / 0 defendant), in the role of local counsel. The plaintiffs — Valtrus Innovations Ltd. and Key Patent Innovations Ltd. — are Irish patent-holding entities (Key Patent Innovations is identified in its Rule 7.1 disclosure as a subsidiary of New PP Licensing LLC), i.e., non-practicing-entity/PAE-type plaintiffs. On this record he functions as Texas local counsel supporting out-of-state lead counsel (Fabricant LLP and Truelove Law Firm appear for plaintiffs), not as lead NPE enforcement counsel. That is a single data point and does not support a general characterization of his practice as plaintiff- or defense-side.

Firm context. Scheef & Stone, L.L.P., a full-service Texas business law firm based in Frisco/Dallas, where the tracked appearance places him. No prior firm history or in-house role could be verified; none is asserted here.

Notable cases and PTAB experience. The Valtrus v. NetApp matter is the only tracked case and the only one to note. Public reporting indicates the dispute spawned a parallel NetApp declaratory-judgment action in the S.D.N.Y. (No. 1:25-cv-06138, filed July 25, 2025), and a Law360 item dated September 23, 2026 reports that a Texas judge transferred the NetApp suit to Delaware. Valtrus also appears as patent owner in IPR2025-00418 (SAP America, Inc. v. Valtrus Innovations Ltd., U.S. Patent No. 6,871,264), but Valtrus's designated PTAB counsel there is Botos Churchill IP Law LLP — no PTAB/IPR appearance by Mr. Samuel is verified, and I found no evidence he regularly appears before the Board.

Bar / education. Not reliably sourced. I could not verify his bar admissions, law school, or admission dates from a creditable public source, so I have omitted them rather than guess.