Over the years, I have been involved in a wide variety of activities ranging from product development programs, government project review panels, intellectual property disputes, and commercial business transactions. As I reviewed these activities it seemed that they had the feel of doing battle - with technology, with expectations, with the possible and the impossible, and yes, sometimes even with people. In my talk, I am going to share with you several of the more interesting optical conflicts ranging from battles fought in the vast realms of toys and consumer products, to the legendary rear guard action of the Hubble fix, and to the bitter sparring of patent fights. From each of them I shall distill the lessons learned; some were predictable, most were unexpected; some were disappointing and others quite funny, in hindsight.

Stephen Fantone, President Optikos Corporation

Stephen is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Optikos Corporation. He has Bachelor of Science Degrees in Electrical Engineering and Management from MIT, and a PhD in Optics from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. While at the Institute of Optics, he was awarded the College of Engineering Fellowship in 1974 and the Fannie and John Hertz Fellowship from 1975 to 1978.

In 1982, Stephen founded Optikos Corporation, an engineering firm that develops optically-based products and manufactures a proprietary line of optical metrology systems. He designed the optics for many commercial and industrial optical products ranging from photographic systems to medical instruments and toys. In the late 1990s it was determined that over one-half of American households had a product that Optikos helped design and over 500 million optical components designed by Optikos had been manufactured. Optikos-designed products can be found in homes and laboratories around the world. An accomplished inventor, he has been awarded more than 60 U.S. patents and in 2008, Optikos was the recipient of the Massachusetts Small Business Administration’s Exporter of the Year Award.

Stephen is a director and Treasurer for the Hertz Foundation. He has also served as Chairman of Benthos, Inc., a NASDAQ listed manufacturer of oceanographic instrumentation and packaging inspection equipment, from 1997 until its sale to Teledyne Technologies in 2006. Currently, he serves as a director of several organizations: Rofin-Sinar Technologies, Inc. a NASDAQ (RSTI) traded global manufacturer of CO2 and other high power lasers used for material processing; Zygo Corporation, a NASDAQ(ZIGO) traded manufacturer of ultraprecision optics and optical metrology products; the Pioneer Institute, a Boston, MA based think tank whose mission is to bring free market principles to the delivery of government services; and the Sea Education Association, an educational non-profit that provides maritime educational experiences to both high school and college students. Since 1996, he has served as a director and Treasurer of the Optical Society of America.

Stephen is also a Senior Lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department at MIT.

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