Each year for the past decade, Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., a national intellectual property law firm, has obtained more U.S. design patents than any other law firm in the country.
According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, in 2012, Banner & Witcoff procured 660 U.S. design patents, which is more design patents than the next three highest law firms combined. The law firm helped to protect many award-winning designs such as Nike’s Nike+ FuelBand®, Microsoft’s Arc® Touch Mouse and Nokia’s Lumia® 800 smartphone. In addition to Nike, Microsoft and Nokia, the law firm helped many clients including Toshiba, PepsiCo and Electrolux protect their important product designs.
Banner & Witcoff has helped other Fortune 500, midlevel and emerging companies procure significant design patent portfolios. In just seven years, the law firm obtained nearly 5,000 U.S. design patents. Demonstrating its depth of client base, the law firm procured design patent portfolios of 25 or more design patents for 22 different clients.
“These accomplishments are a result of our design-driven clients who recognize the need for high quality and strategically-procured design patents, and know that designs patents should not be treated as a mere commodity,” said Robert S. Katz, a principal shareholder at Banner & Witcoff. “We are pleased to continue to work with the world’s most innovative corporations and designers and to help them with global protection of their designs.”
Banner & Witcoff also helps clients obtain design patents outside the U.S. and continues to lead in strategies for procuring international design patent portfolios. Even before the U.S. enacted legislation to implement the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs in December 2012, the law firm had filed nearly 400 design registrations in the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) for clients who reside in member countries of that treaty.
“The Hague Agreement will be an important tool for U.S. applicants going forward,” said Katz. “However, as the design laws are still materially different country-to-country, savvy applicants will recognize that the Hague is merely a filing tool to help perfect an international design portfolio.”
Please direct all media inquiries to Amanda Robert at (312) 463-5465 or arobert@bannerwitcoff.com.
Posted: January 30, 2013
