Consumer Electronics Expert Witness

Evolution of Consumer Electronics Litigation

We use many different types of consumer electronics devices in our day to day lives, including smartphones, smart speakers, set-top boxes, digital video recorders (DVRs), gaming consoles, bluetooth devices, MIDI devices, scanners, drones, smart watches, health monitors, fitness trackers, home appliances, smart TVs, radios, MP3 players, robot vacuums, computer input devices, laptops, tablets, computer monitors, printers, cameras, kitchen appliances, electric cars, and more.

Consumer electronics devices that were previously very simple in operation have become powered by sophisticated computers, sometimes connected to the internet or paired with your smartphone via protocols such as bluetooth.

With this evolution more and more software found its way into devices, potentially increasing the risk of litigation for consumer electronics manufacturers, including intellectual property litigation and product liability litigation.

Additionally, the connection of devices to the internet can raise a number of potential cybersecurity and privacy issues, such as the safeguarding of customers’ data, which can include audio and video captured by devices in the home of customers. A breach involving such sensitive data could lead to class action or other litigation.

Why hire one Expert instead of multiple

A consumer electronics device typically involves multiple areas of expertise, including electronics, firmware, an operating system, application software, and more.

Typically, an expert has an electrical engineering background, or a computer science background, but rarely both. This might require you to hire multiple experts, and then arrange for them to communicate about your matter. This requires additional meetings and communication which in the end is more costly for your client.

There are experts who do have both backgrounds. They started as electrical engineers and added software engineering skills to their background, or they started as computer scientists or software engineers, and added hardware engineering skills to their background. Such experts can save you and your clients a lot of time, as they speak both "languages" and understand how software and hardware interact.

Why hire an Industry Expert

Consumer electronics is a fast moving field, with innovations rapidly following each other. Can you afford to hire an Expert who is not an industry expert? Industry experts with a software and hardware engineering background develop software and design hardware on a daily basis, and are in the trenches working on projects and delivering solutions to clients. They are up to date with the latest developments and are the best Experts to perform analysis of software and hardware designs in consumer electronics devices.

Why Bert Schiettecatte

Bert Schiettecatte has a software and hardware engineering background with over 20 years of experience designing, developing and bringing consumer electronics products to market. He is a seasoned "industry" expert with first hand experience writing software and designing hardware on a daily basis.

Originally a computer scientist and software engineer, Bert Schiettecatte developed his hardware engineering skills starting at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), as well as during product development for his own consumer electronics company Percussa.

As a founder of the pro-audio consumer electronics brand Percussa, he invented the AudioCubes hardware input devices, the Engine/Remote audio synthesizer system, and the SSP and XMX audio synthesizer modules, used by creative professionals around the world. For his audio synthesizer products, he developed various audio digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms.

As a consultant, Bert Schiettecatte has developed solutions for other consumer electronics brands, including real-time video processing software. During his studies, he developed audio software for one of the first powerful mobile consumer electronics devices, the Compaq IPAQ.

Bert Schiettecatte has in depth experience engineering the hardware, firmware and application software for consumer electronics and embedded products, as well as with open source operating systems such as linux, often used in consumer electronics products. He has experience developing user interfaces for consumer electronics products and experience with connectivity standards such as USB.

He has experience designing and reviewing schematics and board layouts for consumer electronics devices and experience with integrating wireless technology and optical sensors into consumer electronics devices, such as in the AudioCubes hardware input device he invented.

He is familiar with major operating systems including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, iOS, Android and programming languages including C, C++, java, C# and Objective-C and has written and reviewed large software source code bases over his career of more than 20 years.

Services Offered by Bert Schiettecatte

Bert Schiettecatte uses his first hand experience developing software and hardware for consumer electronics devices to assist plaintiff and defense attorneys in intellectual property litigation and other matters. All work performed is his own work.

Bert Schiettecate has testifying experience and has been retained in patent litigation, trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract and breach of warranty matters. He has also worked on due diligence projects and has performed computer forensic analysis for certain matters.

Services offered include software source code review, software source code analysis, software source code comparison, review of schematics for electronics, review of printed circuit board (PCB) layouts for electronics, reverse engineering, computer forensics, forensic analysis, electronic data recovery, expert reports, expert testimony, and more.