Biography
Benjamin J. Siders practices in intellectual property and technology licensing and compliance, with a focus on helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups develop and protect their IP assets, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights. He also assists clients with licensing their technology as well as licensing third party technologies. A former software engineer himself, Ben puts his development background to work by providing cost-effective representation to software and computer technology companies.
Ben enjoys a niche practice working with video and board game clients, and has worked on a variety of gaming products including fantasy sports, board games, mobile device games, and publishing services. Ben is also a co-author of the American Bar Association's Legal Guide to Video Game Development and has published an article on board games in the American Bar Association's Landslide journal on IP law. He also holds a patent on a geogaming technology for creating "parallel reality" games.
Ben was selected for inclusion in Missouri & Kansas Rising Stars® 2014-2019.
Practice Areas
- Intellectual Property
- Information Technology
- Technology Licensing
- Commercial Litigation
- Entrepreneurship & Startup Law
- Recreation
- Title Insurance Litigation
- Education
- Design & Luxury
Education
- Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (J.D., magna cum laude, 2009)
- Order of the Coif
- Washington University Law Review, senior editor
- University of Iowa (B.A., 1999)
- English
Legal Background
- Intern, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri (January 2009-April 2009)
- Summer associate, Lewis Rice LLC (2007, 2008)
- Research assistant, Prof. Neil Richards, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (2007)
Corporate Background
- Application engineer, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc. (2005-2006)
- Software engineer, Computerized Medical Systems, Inc. (2002-2005)
- Programmer, Amdocs, Ltd. (2001-2002)
Professional Affiliations
- American Bar Association
- Intellectual Property Law
- Science and Technology Law
- American Intellectual Property Law Association
- Chair, Copyright Law Committee (2023-present)
- Vice-Chair, Copyright Law Committee (2021-2023)
- Subcommittee Chair for Legislation and Copyright Law Substantive Review, Copyright Law Committee (2019-2021)
- Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis
- International Game Developer Association (IGDA)
- International Association of Privacy Professionals
- Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Intellectual Property Constituency (ICANN IPC)
Admissions
- United States Supreme Court
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri
- Registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
- Missouri Bar
- Illinois Bar
Charitable & Civic Activities
- Secretary, The Siders Foundation (2012-present)
- Member, University of Iowa ASIST (2010-present)
- University of Iowa Alumni Association, St. Louis chapter (2010-present)
- Secretary, St. Louis Game Developer Cooperative (2015-2017)
- Secretary, Ohmes Farm Homeowners Association (2014-2016)
- Secretary, International Game Developers Association, St. Louis Chapter (2013-2015)
- Board member, Iowa Student Computing Alumni (2011-2012)
- Judge, American Mock Trial Association Championship Series (2010, 2012)
- Law merit badge counselor, Boy Scouts of America, Greater St. Louis Area Council (2010)
- Assistant scoutmaster, Boy Scouts of America, Troop 809 (2009-2010)
- Den leader, Boy Scouts of America, Pack 809 (2007-2009)
