Richard J. (Rick) McKenna

Richard J. (Rick) McKenna

Richard J. McKenna is the chair of the Milwaukee office Intellectual Property Department and is skilled in a wide range of intellectual property issues. He is a member of the firm's Mechanical & Electromechanical Technologies Practice and Food Industry Team. Mr. McKenna is a licensed patent attorney and regularly counsels clients in the prosecution of U.S. and foreign patents, product clearance studies, potential patent infringement analysis and developing effective worldwide intellectual protection strategies. Based upon his technical background, Mr. McKenna has addressed patent issues in material science and mechanical arts and in the areas of medical devices, food products and processing, automotive products, office furniture, power tools, consumer products and other industrial products. Representative clients include Medtronic, Inc., Robert Bosch Tool Corporation, Roto Zip Tool Corporation, Archway Cookies, Saputo, Inc., BISSELL Homecare Products, Inc., Herman Miller, Inc., CMI Equipment, Inc., NAI Neway, Inc., Cadillac Rubber & Plastics, Inc. and Cascade Engineering, Inc.

Mr. McKenna is also a member of the Trademark, Copyright & Advertising Practice and is the former firm-wide leader of this practice group. He has extensive experience in counseling clients in the selection, adoption and use of trademarks. Mr. McKenna's experience is focused on trademark registration practice, trademark enforcement actions, advertising review, e-commerce use of advertising and trademarks, protection of trade dress and licensing of these assets. With the increase of trademark infringement activities on the Internet and the importance of this vehicle for promoting and selling products, Mr. McKenna has also represented several clients in domain name disputes before international arbitration authorities such as WIPO.

In light of his extensive experience in both the patent and trademark fields, Mr. McKenna is uniquely qualified to counsel clients on the interrelation between utility patent, design patent, trademark and trade dress law and to develop effective strategies for protection of innovations and development of goodwill.

Mr. McKenna has written and lectured on a variety of issues involving licensing and the international sale of goods. He is active in the International Trademark Association and a member of the American Bar Association and its Patent, Trademark and Copyright Section and American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Mr. McKenna graduated from the University of Michigan (B.S., materials and metallurgical engineering, 1985) and Case Western Reserve University School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1988), where he served as editor of the Case Western Reserve University Journal of International Law.

Mr. McKenna is admitted to practice in Michigan, Wisconsin and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.