Intellectual-property work is one of the cornerstones of our firm. In addition to our vast experience as IP counselors, our lawyers have been litigating and trying intellectual-property disputes for 25+ years. Two of our trial lawyers, Bob Gilbertson and David Wallace-Jackson, are perennially recognized in Best Lawyers in America for intellectual-property litigation, and all of our lawyers are experienced in this field. Our firm as a whole is recognized by Best Law Firms as a Tier 1 firm in intellectual-property litigation.
Our boutique firm boasts an ideal combination of technical skill and courtroom acumen. Three of our lawyers have degrees in scientific fields (physics, biology, and aerospace engineering) and all of our lawyers have deep experience working with technical experts and boiling down complicated technology into clear concepts accessible to judges and jurors who don’t happen to have technical backgrounds.
Our IP-litigation practice covers patents, trade secrets, trademarks, and copyrights.
Representative examples
Patents
- Handled matters in district courts, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), and International Trade Commission (ITC)
- Gained deep experience with patented technology relating to databases, software, Internet commerce, web browsing, electrical circuits, payment systems, computer systems and equipment, color transfer, safety devices, industrial equipment, furnaces, and mechanical operations
- Led patent-enforcement campaigns for patent-holders in a wide variety of industries
- Won summary judgment of infringement for a financial-technology company suing to enforce a business-method patent
- Won summary judgment of non-infringement for a national insurer sued by a non-practicing entity on an Internet-commerce patent
- Won dismissal of patent claims against an industrial-equipment installer
Trade Secrets
- Regularly bring and defend trade-secrets claims in connection with employees who leave one company and join another
- Brought and resolved action to protect a Fortune 100 company’s filter-technology trade secrets from misuse by a competitor and former supplier
- Brought trade-secrets claims on behalf of a manufacturer after key employees started a rival business based on the manufacturer’s engineering drawings
- The case eventually settled after defendants’ two motions for summary judgment were denied based on disputed issues of material fact over their alleged reverse-engineering of the products and competing definitions about what constitutes the “general knowledge” claimed by the former employees
Trademarks / Trade Dress
- Won summary judgment for a Fortune 100 food company defending an $18 million trademark-rights and fraud claim (affirmed by Eighth Circuit)
- Brought and resolved trademark-infringement lawsuit involving home-security products
Copyrights
- Defended a manufacturer against claims of copyright infringement relating to Internet sales