Richard S. Stockton

Richard S. Stockton

Attorney

Chicago, IL

Main: 312.463.5000 Fax: 312.463.5001

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Richard renders holistic intellectual property counseling, prosecution and litigation advice to his clients. Exemplary achievements include:

  • Prosecuting hundreds of US utility patent applications and thousands of US design patent applications before >100 US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiners, and managing thousands of foreign counterparts in >100 jurisdictions and >140 countries
  • Prosecuting and/or managing thousands of US trademark and copyright applications and their foreign counterparts
  • Litigating dozens of patent, trademark and copyright litigations and inter partes review proceedings as counsel of record, litigating numerous other IP litigations, successful preliminary injunction and Markman hearings
  • Drafting US Supreme Court amicus briefs regarding trade dress functionality and extraterritoriality of damages, serving as design patent expert witness
  • Managing multiple IP portfolios with >1,000 properties, orchestrating the transfer of a >10,000 property portfolio and conducting large scale buyer/seller IP due diligence
  • Drafting cease and desist letters and responses, rendering infringement/invalidity/unenforceability opinions, drafting cease and desist letters and responses, supervising infringement, invalidity, and counterfeiting investigations worldwide, prevailing in numerous domain name arbitrations, preparing licensing agreements and IP holding company transfers
  • Counseling on EPA, FDA, FTC and other labelling and compliance matters
  • Advising on domestic and international IP policy issues and treaties, including eligible subject matter, sufficiency of disclosure, harmonization, the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of IP Rights and the Hague Conference on Private International Law’s Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments in Civil or Commercial Matters

Richard’s areas of interest include:

  • The protection and enforcement of IP across various rights and jurisdictions
  • Design patents, trade dress and copyrights, and related ornamentality, functionality and useful article defenses
  • Extraterritoriality of US IP rights and remedies
  • Historical antecedents of US IP jurisprudence and continued law and equity distinctions

Richard earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UI). He then graduated from the UI College of Law cum laude, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of The University of Illinois Journal of LawTechnology & Policy, the Legislation Editor of the Illinois Law Update section of The Illinois Bar Journal and a founder of Modern Trends in Intellectual Property

Bar Activities

  • American Bar Association, Section of Intellectual Property Law (ABA)
    • Patents Division, Vice Chair, 2021-present
    • Standing International IP Task Force, Chair, 2021-present, Vice Chair, 2019-21
    • Patent Systems Policy Committee, Vice Chair, 2019-21
    • Leadership award, 2019
    • Patent Litigation Committee, Chair, 2017-19, Vice-Chair 2013-17
    • Technology for the Litigator Committee (ABA Section of Litigation), Co-Chair, 2010-13, Newsletter Editor-in-Chief, 2006-10
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
    • Amicus Committee, 2020-present
    • Nominations Committee, 2022
    • International and Foreign Laws Committee, Co-Chair, 2018-20
    • Industrial Designs Committee, Chair, 2016-18, Vice-Chair, 2014-16
  • International Trademark Association (INTA)
    • Designs Committee, Design Resources Review Subcommittee and Trade Dress Task Force, 2022-present
    • High Performing Committee Member, 2023
    • Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Committee
      • National Chair, 2016-17, National Vice-Chair and Bench Memo Committee Chair, 2015-16, Project Team Member, 2013-present
      • Chicago Regional Competition Chair, 2013-15, Vice-Chair, 2011-13, Committee Member, 2006-present, Bailiff, 2000-06
      • Oral Argument Judge, Asia-Pacific Moot Court Competition (Singapore), 2019
  • Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO)
    • Industrial Designs Committee, Member, 2013-present
  • ICANN IP Constituency, Banner Witcoff Primary Representative, 2016-19
  • Member: ABA, AIPLA, INTA, IPO, Illinois State Bar Association, Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago

Teaching Activities

  • Adjunct Professor, IP Litigation Pretrial Skills
    • Northwestern University (NU) School of Law, LITARB 614A, 2012-18, 2020-21
    • Georgetown University Law Center, LAWJ-293-07, 2004-11
  • Guest Lecturer, Fundamentals of Legal Practice, UI College of Law, 2015-16, 2018-19
  • Class panelist: NU School of Law, UI College of Law, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Exemplary Presentations and Panels

  • Presenter, “ACT CLR: A Hetronic Mnemonic for Extraterritoriality and Trademark Remedies,” Chicago Bar Association, 2023 (forthcoming)
  • Presenter, “The Shot Heard ‘Round the Design World—and It’s Still Ricocheting: Curver, SurgiSil and now Columbia,” Banner Witcoff-Sterne Kessler Design Symposium, 2022
  • Panelist, "Design Patent Claims Amendment, Reissue, Validity Challenges: Recent Court Treatment and USPTO Guidance," Strafford Webinar, 2021
  • Moderator, “Emerging IP Abroad: Approaches to Protecting Computer Functionality and Designs Outside the US,” AIPLA Virtual Spring Meeting, 2020
  • Presenter, “Industrial Design Rights: Global Themes Distilled from Experiences in the United States,” IP Office of Singapore, 2019
  • Presenter, “Enforcing Designs Under US Patent, Copyright, and Trademark Law” and “Apple v. Samsung: A Case Study,” IP Protection for Industrial Designs:  An International Perspective, USPTO Global IP Academy, 2018
  • Moderator, “Perspectives on IP Brinkmanship Between the US and China in the Current Global Trade Environment, ” ABA Annual Meeting, 2018
  • Presenter, “Introduction to Design Litigation,” AIPLA Design Rights Boot Camp, 2018
  • Presenter, “Defending Design Patent Litigations: If Something’s Amiss, Move to Dismiss,” Design Day, 2017
  • Moderator, “The Wide World of Designs: Best Practices for the Procurement of Design Patents Across Borders and in the U.S.,” AIPLA Mid-Winter Institute, 2016
  • Public Speaker, “Roundtable Event on the Written Description Requirement for Design Applications,” USPTO, 2014
  • Presenter, “Design and Utility Patents, Trade Dress, and Copyright: How to Prosecute and Enforce Multiple Layers of IP Protection,” IPO Chat Channel, 2013
  • “Design Patent Functionality After Egyptian Goddess and Richardson: The Assumption of Claim Construction Dysfunction and Gumption,” AIPLA Spring Meeting, 2013
  • “Owens Poems and High Point Haikus,” Industrial Design Committee Meeting at AIPLA Annual Meeting, 2013
  • Panelist, “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” Northwestern School of Law, 2013
  • “Shall I Complain or Abstain about a Domain,” Banner & Witcoff Corporate IP Seminar, 2012
  • New gTLD Overview, gTLD Opposition Overview, American Marketing Association Podcasts, 2011, 2012
  • Public Panelist, “Designs in Recent Court Decisions,” Design Day, USPTO, 2010

Exemplary Publications

University of Illinois Alumni Activities

  • Chicago Illini Leadership Council, Chair, 2015-16, Member, 2014-20
  • Athletic Board, Member, 2012-16; Athletic Director Search Committee, Member, 2015-16
  • College of Law Board of Visitors, Member, 2005-11
  • Campus Alumni Advisory Board, Member, 2006-12
  • Mentor, law and engineering students
  • Member: President’s Council, John E. Cribbet Society, UI Alumni Association Life Member

Richard also has governmental relations and policy experience. He has prepared draft legislation, and served as a legislative extern to the Illinois House of Representatives. Richard also interned in Congress, where he worked on legislation such as the Edible Oil Regulatory Reform Act, H.R. 436, later enacted as Pub. L. No. 104-55 and codified at 33 U.S.C. 2720.

In Chicago, Richard served on the Roscoe Village Neighbors Board of Directors, and appeared with his daughter in Ballet Chicago’s The Nutcracker in 2017-19. His other volunteer activities have included serving on the Chicago Public Schools Local School Council for Audubon Elementary School and the Champaign Liquor Advisory Commission, and volunteering as an instructor for Presidential Classroom for Young Americans in Washington, D.C.  

Richard’s pro bono work has included representing Lincoln Park Zoo, Timeline Theatre in Chicago, and Kilimanjaro Technology Foundation. He also assisted the Chicago-Kent Patent Hub, part of the USPTO Patent Pro Bono Program, from 2017-20.

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    1997, B.S., Electrical Engineering
  • University of Illinois College of Law
    2000, J.D., Cum Laude

Bar Admissions

  • 2000, Illinois

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. Supreme Court

  • "Patent Star" (2013-22) and "Trademark Star" (2019-22), Managing IP magazine
  • Leading trademark practitioner, World Trademark Review 1000, 2018-23
  • Key trademark practice member, The Legal 500, 2018-20
  • "Leading Lawyer," Leading Lawyers, a division of Law Bulletin Media, 2022
  • “40 Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch,” Law Bulletin Publishing Co., 2015
  • "Illinois Rising Star," Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2008-15
  • "Emerging Lawyer," Leading Lawyers, a division of Law Bulletin Media, 2015

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