Practice Areas & Industries: Barnes & Thornburg LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

With more than 80 attorneys and agents across our offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minneapolis, Ohio, and Washington, D.C., Barnes & Thornburg LLP's Intellectual Property ("IP") Department is one of the largest intellectual property practice groups in the Midwest. We help clients protect, enforce, and fully utilize their intellectual property, and preserve and defend their market advantages, both domestically and internationally. Our services include:

• Preparing and prosecuting patent applications
• Preparing and prosecuting trademark applications
• Assisting in the transfer of intellectual property
• Assisting with the IP aspects of mergers, acquisitions, & divestitures
• Litigating patent, trademark, copyright, trade dress, and trade secret cases
• Assisting with franchising and product distribution
• Provide technology-related services through our Business and Technology Group
• Assisting with antitrust and trade regulation

We have represented more than 14,000 inventors from at least 43 states and from at least 16 countries in addition to the United States. We have 150 clients in Silicon Valley alone. We also have handled more than 15,000 trademarks and 15,000 patents. The firm is currently:

• Ranked 89th among all U.S. law firms in number of U.S. Issue Patents in 2008 (Intellectual Property Today, March 2009)
• Ranked 14th among all U.S. law firms in number of trademarks issued in 2008 (Intellectual Property Today, May 2009)
• Ranked 11th among all U.S. law firms for the number of applications submitted to the USPTO during 2008 (Trademark Insider, May 2009)

Our Washington, D.C., office provides assistance in proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Copyright Office, and the International Trade Commission.

Because many of the lawyers in the IP Department have both education and experience in technical disciplines, ranging from electrical and mechanical engineering to chemistry and microbiology in addition to their legal education and experience, we are well positioned and prepared to better understand our clients' needs at both the technical and legal levels. Our lawyers work with our clients' engineers and scientists at the beginning of research and development projects to help determine how and when to protect and fully utilize the results of those efforts.

Our registered patent lawyers prepare, file and prosecute patent applications both in the United States and foreign jurisdictions, often using the procedures for foreign applications established by the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). When filing patent and trademark applications in foreign countries, Barnes & Thornburg is assisted by a network of foreign legal counsel familiar with local practices and requirements.

When competitors refuse to recognize the rights of our clients, our IP lawyers counsel clients on ways to enforce their rights, including the use of litigation. Our attorneys have extensive experience litigating cases in jurisdictions and forums throughout the United States and in many foreign countries, ranging from opposition proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, to antitrust class actions, to proceedings before the International Trade Commission.