Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP

Kilpatrick Stockton is unique among general practice firms in the practice of IP law. Our Intellectual Property Practice is one of the largest in the firm, and is further supported by lawyers in the Litigation Group, many of whom have experience in the protection and defense of intellectual property assets and holdings from trademarks to patents to copyrights.

Commitment to the practice of intellectual property law is woven into our firm's fabric at the highest levels of management. In an independent worldwide survey taken among in-house and private practitioners, the trade publication Managing Intellectual Property rated our firm chairman as #2 of the top 50 practicing trademark lawyers in the world. Our firm-wide Managing Partner, Bill Brewster, also practices in the Intellectual Property Group.

Whether representing clients in trademark, copyright or patent proceedings among many others, our firm subscribes to a philosophy of partnership. Through the collaboration of knowledge and ideas, we share both the risks and rewards of your business.

TRADEMARK PRACTICE

We built our reputation in the trademark field long before other general practice firms began to recognize the value of Intellectual Property. As early as 1893, Kilpatrick Stockton secured a federal trademark registration of the COCA-COLA trademark. Later, firm partner Harold Hirsch -- one of the early leaders in the field of trademark and unfair competition law -- worked on behalf of the cola company to persuade the Supreme Court to recognize a doctrine of secondary meaning in trademark law in Coca-Cola Co. v. Koke Co. of America, 254 U.S. 143 (1920). We subsequently advised the Coca-Cola Company to adopt a uniform bottle shape, for which the firm obtained trademark protection.

We have steadfastly built upon this tradition. In an independent worldwide survey taken among more than 4000 in-house and private practitioners, the trade publication Managing Intellectual Property rated our firm chairman, Miles Alexander, as #2 of the top 50 practicing trademark lawyers in the world. This same publication ranks our trademark litigation group in the top five leading practices in the United States, making Kilpatrick Stockton the highest rated general practice firm. Seven of our IP partners were ranked by their peers among the very top trademark lawyers in Euromoney's (Managing IP Magazine) 2004 Guide to the World's Leading Trademark Practitioners. The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers for 2004-2005 names three Kilpatrick Stockton trademark partners.

The firm's commitment to diversity as a core value leads us to pursue initiatives that make every aspect of our work environment more open and fulfilling for everyone. We have adopted as our guiding principle the following statement about what diversity means to us, which we refer to as the Kilpatrick Townsend diversity principle:

"At Kilpatrick Townsend, all persons, without regard to differences among them that do not matter in the workplace, shall be respected and valued fully, so that each person may maximize his or her potential to contribute to the common good of our firm and to benefit fairly from doing so."

Our Legacy

Kilpatrick Townsend has a 135-year history of leadership in inclusiveness -- hiring and promoting diverse attorneys and staff and fostering an environment in which the best legal minds can thrive. It's one of the most important elements of our legacy, and it has contributed directly to our firm's success.

Kilpatrick Townsend:

• was one of the first large firms in the Southeast to have a female partner;
• led the major regional law firms in recruiting and hiring African-American attorneys
• was the first AmLaw 100 firm headquartered in the South to have a female co-managing partner;
• represented Martin Luther King, Sr. when the IRS unfairly targeted his church in the 1960s; and
• provided pro bono counsel to Atlanta’s first black mayor Maynard Jackson’s mayoral re-election campaign in 1989.

For us, diversity in our workplace is about action and continually seeking better ways to empower and energize our diverse personnel for success. Their individual successes enhance both our ability to provide world-class services to clients and our collective and individual contributions to the strength and vitality of the communities in which we work and live.

Our Vision and Values

Commitment is the foundation of a successful effort to build and maintain a diverse and inclusive environment. We are working to attract the widest possible pool of top talent; provide opportunities for all attorneys and staff to maximize their potential and fully contribute to accomplishing our firm’s mission, and ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

Promoting diversity and its social imperative for fair treatment in our workplace without regard to racial, ethnic, religious, gender, sexual orientation and other self-defining factors is a core value of the firm -- a part of the fabric for our institutional life. We recognize both the social responsibility and the business opportunity of promoting diversity. It is the right thing to do, and it is good for business.