Speakers
Benjamin Siders, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Lewis Rice LLC
Benjamin J. Siders is an intellectual property and technology lawyer, and Practice Group Leader for the Intellectual Property practice group, at Lewis Rice LLC in St. Louis, Missouri. A former software engineer, Ben brings a developer's mindset to his legal practice, providing cost-effective, actionable counsel to software and game development clients. His work focuses on helping small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups protect their creations with copyrights, trademarks and patents, and navigating complex technology licensing and compliance. Ben also maintains a niche practice working with video and board game clients. He has advised developers and publishers on a wide range of gaming products, including tabletop games, mobile apps, fantasy sports platforms, and digital publishing services. Ben's legal counsel is informed by his personal experience as a game developer. He has developed a multithreaded on-line RPG server in C++, dubbed "Archon," and open-sourced a ROM2.4 derivative MUD codebase. He is also co-inventor of U.S. Pat. No. 9,078,103 for a geogaming technology used to create "parallel reality" games. Ben is also a co-author of the American Bar Association's Legal Guide to Video Game Development, and has written for Landslide, the American Bar Association's intellectual property law journal, including an article focused on legal issues in board game design. He also co-hosts A Lawyer's Guide to the Galaxy, a podcast about the intersection of geek culture and the law.