Chris is of counsel in the firm's Richmond office. His practice focuses on intellectual property matters, transactional and litigation, as well as the related areas of antitrust and trade regulation, distribution and franchise law, and advertising law.
Chris' intellectual property work spans the wide range of developing intellectual property issues. Substantive areas of practice include: trademark matters, including prosecution, counseling, licensing, TTAB practice and litigation; counseling and the development of IP protection plans, as well as IP audit; technology transfer matters, including licensing in a variety of industry sectors, strategic alliances, joint ventures, outsourcing and the like; university spin offs, sponsored research and IP-related government contracting; computer and internet law, including a variety of e-commerce arrangements, domain name disputes, and DMCA disputes, IP aspects of due diligence, mergers and acquisitions and financings; and various employment, NDA, invention disclosure and other agreements; copyright counseling and prosecution; and intellectual property litigation.
Chris' antitrust experience includes litigation and counseling, as well as specialized matters such as developing antitrust compliance programs, Robinson-Pitman advice, Hart-Scott-Rodino matters; and representation of clients before the FTC, state agencies and grand juries. He has represented clients working with a variety of franchise, distributor and dealer arrangements, domestic and internationally and also works with businesses and advertising agencies to ensure compliance with promotional and advertising laws.
Representative Matters
· Representative transactional experience
· Representative litigation experience
Recognition and Honors
· Best Lawyers in America, 2004-2012
· Richmond Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year; Best Lawyers in America, 2010
· America's Leading Business Lawyers; Chambers USA; Intellectual Property Law, 2004-2011
· Virginia Super Lawyers; Law & Politics, 2006-2011
· Virginia Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition; Law & Politics, 2009-2010
· Virginia's Legal Elite; Virginia Business Magazine, 2001-2011
· Voted No. 1 Intellectual Property attorney in Richmond; Richmond Magazine, 1999
· Virginia Law Review; University of Virginia School of Law
· Order of the Coif
Associations
· Virginia Bar Association; Chair, Intellectual Property and Technology Section, 2007-2008
· Virginia State Bar; Chair, Intellectual Property Law Section, 2005-2006
· American Intellectual Property Law Association
· International Trademark Association; Editorial Board Member, The Trademark Reporter®, 1990-1998
· T.C. Williams Law School; Adjunct Professor, Intellectual Property Law and Advertising Law, 1994-2002