Banner Witcoff

Robert S. Katz discusses how the Hague Agreement is one tool in an overall strategy for procuring a worldwide design portfolio in the Law360 article, “Worldwide Design Patent System Can Trip Up The Unwary.” Please click here to read the article.

Mr. Cooperman and Mr. Stockton served as alumni instructors in the new University of Illinois College of Law course, “Fundamentals of Legal Practice,” last spring. The course was administered by the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development, and created to teach students more about the legal profession and how to build a successful legal career. Mr. Cooperman and Mr. Stockton…

THE U.S. AND JAPAN JOIN THE HAGUE SYSTEM By Richard S. Stockton On May 13, 2015, the United States and Japan will become contracting parties to the Hague System for the International Registration of Industrial Designs. The Hague System allows the filing of a single international design application that can lead to design protection in…

Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., a national intellectual property law firm dedicated to the procurement, enforcement and litigation of intellectual property rights throughout the world, welcomes eight summer associates to the firm. The following law students will join Banner & Witcoff’s Chicago and Washington, D.C., offices as summer associates: Courtney Cronin, Chicago, Northwestern University School of…

Banner & Witcoff welcomes Maurine L. Knutsson to the firm’s Chicago office as an associate. Ms. Knutsson focuses her practice on protecting, enforcing and managing clients’ trademarks, copyrights, designs and cyber rights. She works with clients to develop effective strategies for establishing and enforcing U.S. and global trademark rights, and represents clients in opposition and…

Marc S. Cooperman, Erik S. Maurer, Timothy C. Meece, Helen Hill Minsker, Jon O. Nelson, Thomas K. Pratt, Christopher J. Renk and Charles W. Shifley were named by Legal Leaders to Chicago’s Top Rated Lawyers of 2015. These attorneys have achieved the peer reviewed rating of AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell®. This rating is a significant…

John M. Fleming explains the difference between offensive and defensive patents, as well as how to assess and potentially acquire those patents, inInside Counsel‘s article, “Shields, swords and sandboxes: Offensive and defensive patents lead to robust portfolios.” Please click here to read the article.

TTAB APPEAL AT USDC – WIN OR LOSE – YOU PAY THE USPTO COSTS By Ernest V. Linek On April 23, 2015, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled (2-1) in the case ofShammas v. Focarino, that, win or lose, a party who files a U.S. district court appeal from a decision of the Trademark…

On April 27, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled once again in Biosig Instruments Inc. v. Nautilus Inc. that a Biosig heart rate monitor patent asserted against Nautilus is not indefinite. The Federal Circuit heard the case on remand from the Supreme Court, which held in June 2014 that to prove…

Marc S. Cooperman, Dale H. Hoscheit, V. Bryan Medlock Jr., Jon O. Nelson, Joseph M. Potenza and Charles W. Shifley were named to Euromoney’s 2015 Expert Guide to the “World’s Leading Patent Law Practitioners.” Please click here for more information.