Attorney Profiles

Sten Hakanson is Of Counsel to the firm assisting in the area of Intellectual Property (IP). Mr. Hakanson has a private IP practice, Hakanson Patent Law LLC, and has broad experience in all aspects of Intellectual Property law. He has worked both as a law firm attorney and as chief in-house counsel for a large multi-national corporation, and has represented individual inventors, start-ups, and small to large businesses. In particular, Mr. Hakanson's experience as in-house counsel has provided him with a strong background in business management issues relating to product development, marketing, outsourcing, partnering and acquisitions. This knowledge of business matters provides him with a background that is invaluable when helping clients create successful products supported by strong patent and trademark protection. He has also authored courses on IP law as well as on the design and implementation of systems for the management of IP assets. These courses are designed to help businesses ensure that their key employees are sufficiently knowledgeable about the basics of IP law, and to help in the proper management and maximum performance of their IP portfolios. Mr. Hakanson's areas of technical expertise, include: biomedical and complex mechanical devices, software, chemical compositions, electronic controls and green technology including biofuels and wind energy.

Mr. Hakanson donates much of his free time to his local community and works with the Mahtomedi Area Green Initiative (MAGI), a citizen's group that successfully raised funds for the installation of a windmill at the Mahtomedi High School. This equipment provides a valuable educational opportunity for the entire district K-12. Sten is also an advisor to the Engineering program for the Mahtomedi school system, which group is tasked with the job of creating a state of the art engineering and math curriculum. This goal took a giant leap forward with the first installation in a public high school (Mahtomedi) of a fabrication Laboratory (FabLab), as developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sten lives in Grant, Minnesota with his wife Connie and their two daughters. Their oldest daughter is in college and is majoring in Environmental Engineering, and their younger daughter is in high school and is passionate about, French, History and English. As a family they enjoy travel, boating, fishing and generally hanging out together. Sten likes playing the piano, video recording and editing, photography, downhill and nordic skiing, building computers and gourmet cooking.