Matthew J. May

Matthew J. May

Attorney

Chicago, IL

Main: 312.463.5000 Fax: 312.463.5001

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Matthew's practice focuses on prosecution, litigation, and counseling in patent and trademark matters. As a 30-year retired Army Reservist, Matthew combines his military passion with his intellectual property expertise as a member of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) and the NDIA IP Working Group (IPWG).  The NDIA IPWG helps him focus on defense companies and government contractors and helping the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) with patents and intellectual property. 

Matthew has experience preparing and prosecuting utility and design patent applications for a variety of industries and technological areas including athletic equipment, footwear, medical devices, outdoor consumer goods, food and beverage processing systems, packaging technology, printers, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), power control circuits, lighting fixtures, light emitting diodes (LEDs), window and door hardware, and business methods. Matthew also has experience preparing and prosecuting trademark applications. In addition, Matthew has been a member of litigation teams for both patent protection and trademark protection cases.

Matthew has a wide range of technical experience in multiple industries, ranging from medical products and sterilization, to produce processing and consumer products.

Before joining Banner Witcoff, Matthew was an engineering manager with Baxter Healthcare, where he managed a team of engineers and technical specialists that specialized in the technical areas such as heat transfer, fluid dynamics, software design, software validation, equipment validation, microbiology, metrology, sterilization of medical products, moist heat sterilization, ethylene oxide sterilization, e-beam sterilization and equipment start-up. Prior to working at Baxter Healthcare, Matthew was a project engineer for Avon Products at one of their manufacturing facilities. Matthew also has worked as a process engineer designing food and beverage systems and facilities.

Matthew received a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Aerospace from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1992, which led him to service with the United States Army, Illinois National Guard and Army Reserve where he retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Matthew previously held and was cleared with a Top Secret clearance at his retirement in May 2022.  He received his M.B.A. degree with distinction from DePaul University, and his Juris Doctorate from The John Marshall Law School.

Matthew was a contributing author of the article, “Design Patent Litigation and Procurement Post-Egyptian Goddess” published by The University of Texas School of Law for the 2010 Advanced Patent Law Institute at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. While at The John Marshall Law School, Matthew was the Editor-in-Chief of The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law. Matthew published his article, “Patent Reform, Injunctions, and Equitable Principles: A Triangle of Changes for the Future” in the Review of Intellectual Property Law’s Summer 2007 volume (6 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 671 (2007)). Matthew also co-authored a NASA Technical Memorandum titled, “Flapping Inertia for Selected Rotor Blades” in 1991 after extensive research at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

  • United States Military Academy
    1992, B.S., Mechanical Engineering
  • DePaul University
    2001, M.B.A.
  • University of Illinois Chicago School of Law
    2009, J.D.

Bar Admissions

  • 2009, Illinois

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

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