Tom focuses his practice on litigating and trying complex intellectual property matters. Tom has successfully represented clients in all phases of intellectual property infringement lawsuits in district courts throughout the country, including trial, preliminary injunction hearings, Markman hearings and other pre-trial hearings, discovery, and pre- and post-trial motions.
Tom also has an active practice before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), including successfully representing clients in trials in inter partes review proceedings in the electrical and computer hardware/software arts. Tom also has experience successfully handling and arguing appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
Since joining the firm in 1992, Tom has successfully represented both plaintiffs and defendants as lead and co-counsel in litigation involving diverse subjects such as computer software, website technology, contact lenses, athletic footwear, consumer electronics products, digital watermarking, exercise monitoring technology, interactive TV program guides, steam turbine technology and medical devices. Tom has also represented clients in counseling matters regarding various computer software and hardware patents, including patents relating to modems, DRAM technology and computer graphics. Tom’s recent successes include representing a plaintiff as lead counsel at TRO and Preliminary Injunction hearings, which resulted in the entry of Orders requiring the defendants to cease all infringing activity.
In addition to his active practice, Tom has also served as an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern Law School and Georgetown Law School, where he has taught Patent Trial Practice. Tom is a contributing author of the Patent Trial Advocacy Casebook, published by the American Bar Association and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Tom has also served on Banner Witcoff’s Board of Directors, and has also served as President of the firm.
From 2005 to the present, Tom has been annually selected as an “Illinois Super Lawyer.” The Super Lawyers lists represent the top 5 percent of attorneys in each state. These attorneys are selected through peer nominations and evaluations, and third-party research by Thomson Reuters. Tom was also named to the Leading Lawyers Network. Based upon peer nominations and approval by the network’s Advisory Board, only the top lawyers are nominated and eligible for membership in the Leading Lawyers Network.
Tom earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1989, where he was selected for membership in the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu Engineering Honor Societies. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Kansas in 1992. Tom graduated Order of the Coif and was an Associate Editor of the Law Review.
Tom is a registered patent attorney and is admitted to practice in the state of Illinois. He is also admitted to practice before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and numerous federal district courts.
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University of Kansas
1989, B.S., Electrical Engineering
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University of Kansas School of Law
1992, J.D.
Bar Admissions
- 1992, Illinois
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
