Stephen Joncus

Steve has enjoyed a wide-ranging career. He was trained as a chemical engineer and enjoyed a 15-year career with Rockwell International before becoming a lawyer.

At the Hanford Site near Richland, Washington, Steve engineered and operated facilities for high-level radioactive waste from 1981 to 1987. Among other things, he was the lead process engineer responsible for the first successful operation of the jet pump program for removing interstitial liquids from high level radioactive waste stored in underground single shell tanks. He redesigned the jet pumps to minimize leaks and increase reliability. His experience at Hanford also included serving as a Shift Support Manager of nuclear process operators on a rotating shift and as a Project Engineer for the start-up of AP Farm—the last double-shell underground tank farm for high level radioactive waste built at the Hanford Site.

Steve was then recruited by Rockwell to work for Rockwell Space Operations Company at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. There, he managed the Shuttle Mission Simulator, NASA’s highest fidelity astronaut training simulator for the Space Shuttle, for 7 years and 50 Shuttle flights. Steve successfully tackled long-standing problems that had plagued the simulators for years resulting in dramatic improvements in simulator reliability. While managing the Shuttle Mission Simulator full-time, Steve attended law school at the University of Houston at night.

Steve started his legal career in 1996 as a litigation associate at Bracewell in Houston. There he litigated cases concerning breach of contract and related torts as well as disputes in the oil and gas industry. In 1999, Steve was admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

In 2001, Steve joined Klarquist Sparkman, the largest intellectual property boutique law firm in the Pacific Northwest, and became a partner in 2006. At Klarquist, Steve litigated patent, copyright, and trademark disputes on behalf of clients over a wide range of subjects involving software, computers, music, mechanical devices, and chemistry.

In December 2015, Steve started his own firm, Joncus Law P.C.

Steve and Rose (married for 30+ years) are very proud of their two adult children. Larissa, an artist, model, and worldwide traveler, currently works in Taiwan. Parker is now a software developer after graduating from Illinois Tech with a Bachelor’s of Science in Applied Math, magna cum laude, and a Masters in Data Science. Among other hobbies, Steve thoroughly enjoys photography.

View Steve's representative cases.

Education

University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1995

University of Rochester, Bachelor of Science, Chemical Engineering, 1981

Admitted to Practice

Texas

Oregon

United States Patent and Trademark Office

Professional Activities

• Fellow of the Academy of Court-Appointed Masters, 2014
• President, U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society, 2012 - 2015
• Program Chair, Salishan Patent Law Conference, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014
• Past President, Oregon Patent Law Association, 2008
• Member, Local Rules Advisory Committee for the U.S. District Court of Oregon, 2004 - 2014

Prior Professional Experience

Rockwell Hanford Operations | 1981 - 1987

Rockwell Space Operations Company | 1987 - 1996

Bracewell LLP | 1996 - 2000

Jenkens & Gilchrist, PC | 2000 - 2001

Klarquist Sparkman LLP | 2001 - 2015