District of Columbia

Firm overview

Since our founding in 1927, our focus has been exclusively IP. Whether representing multinational corporations like Sony and Wayfair, life sciences institutions producing life-saving technologies like Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer, prestigious universities and research institutions like Memorial Sloan-Kettering, MIT, and Harvard, or “unicorn” start-ups, our firm is structured around providing the highest level of service, quality, and value to clients whose IP is at the core of their business.

Firm overview

Comprehensive worldwide IP protection and strategies.

Katten's IP programs build foundational strength. Our approach is brand immersive and begins with understanding your company and competitive pressures. Industry-rich experience — particularly in apparel and fashion, technology, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and entertainment — adds practicality and common sense. From start to finish, Katten covers your IP concerns domestically and internationally in:

• Advertising, marketing and promotions
• Copyrights and trademarks
• Enforcement
• IP-asset secured financings
• Licensing and related commercial agreements
• Litigation
• Patents
• Portfolio management and counseling
• Trademarks and trade names
• Trade secrets
• Transactions

Securing IP value in deals, in court and across platforms.

Trusted by corporate boardrooms as well as by the artistic forces behind them, we dig deeper than simply what the law or IP search says. Our attorneys are authorities leading the conversation as teachers in law schools and as contributors to Successful Partnering Between Inside and Outside Counsel, Managing Intellectual Property and The Licensing Journal.

Should threats arise to brands, products or services, we protect you swiftly and decisively. We obtain temporary restraining orders to shut down high-profile infringers, navigate multichannel expansion for Fortune 500 brands and secure IP essentials for emerging companies. We also vigorously defend companies against overreaching third-party claims. In the realm of deal making and financings, the influence of IP assets is growing. Katten offers practical insights and guidance in IP valuations and strategies related to:

• Bankruptcies and restructurings
• IP-asset secured financings
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Rebrandings

Firm overview

We are an IP Litigation powerhouse for technology, life sciences and health technology in patents, trade secrets and commercial litigation with unparalleled trial success at all levels at each forum and venue. Our approach integrates our practices to provide businesses with comprehensive intellectual property protections. Our litigation expertise and experience also gives us an edge in advising our clients on the likely outcomes of litigation, including in the context of corporate acquisitions and portfolio management. Our approach, which supports “small firm” key partner attention with the “large firm” resources ensures our clients receive effective and efficient representation at every stage of the case. We are committed to helping clients structure the most comprehensive and workable enforcement and defense for all aspects of their intellectual property. 

Bench and Jury Trials at the U.S. District Courts

• We have litigated and counseled on patent and trade secrets issues across a wide range of industries, including software, hardware, electronics, chemical processes, telecommunications, consumer goods, manufacturing, sales, financial services, and pharmaceuticals.
• We are also experts in §101 invalidity challenges with a near-perfect record in district court and the Federal Circuit, pursuing and obtaining attorneys’ fees, and obtaining wins in Federal Circuit appeals.
• We are experts in the nuances of life sciences patent litigation, including Hatch-Waxman Act and biosimilars patent litigation under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act, and the intersecting FDA regulatory regime in which these cases operate. 

PTAB Proceedings

• We have handled over 400 post-grant proceedings before the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board, on behalf of both petitioners and patent owners across a wide range of industries.
• Our attorneys have been hailed as ones who can be “trust[ed] . . . with crown jewels, and have been described as “PTAB mastermind[s],” “PTAB trial guru[s],” knowing the PTAB “like the back of [their] hands,” and “understand[ing] all the rules and subtleties of IPR proceedings better than anyone I’ve ever worked with.”
• Our attorneys worked on the first ever PTAB proceeding on the technology side and also led the first ever successful defense of a pharmaceutical patent.

ITC Section 337 Investigations

• We represent both complainants and respondents, and have been at the forefront of recent cutting-edge decisions at the ITC. 
• We have served as counsel in more than 60 Section 337 Investigations, and have appeared before each of the Presiding Administrative Law Judges (ALJs), including multiple successes before Customs in ensuring our clients’ products are not excluded from the United States. 

International Arbitrations

• We represent clients in all aspects of litigation related to arbitration, including bringing and defending motions to compel arbitration, obtaining and opposing interim and protective measures in aid of arbitration, seeking and opposing recognition of arbitral awards, seeking and opposing the annulment of arbitral awards, and disputes over the taking of evidence in the US in aid of international arbitrations and foreign litigation.
• We regularly draft, advise, and teach courses on the drafting and interpretation of arbitration and forum-selection agreements in circumstances ranging from simple two-party deals to complex commercial transactions involving multiple parties, jurisdictions, and applicable laws. We recognize that each matter is unique and strive to meet our client’s objectives in the most cost-effective manner.

Supreme Court and Appellate Review

• We have top-notch appellate capabilities and can handle an IP litigation matter from start to finish. 
• Our lawyers are skilled in the art of written and oral advocacy, as well as in simplifying technical arguments for generalist Federal Circuit judges.
• We devote our practice to the craft of conceiving and presenting argument on complex, law-intensive issues, bringing to bear our many years of experience in areas of law that cut across traditional legal disciplines, such as constitutional interpretation, damages, procedure, and jurisdiction. 

Firm overview

From our offices in strategic hubs of commerce, law, and government across North America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, we work with clients ranging from established, global Fortune 100 companies to enterprising startups.

Our team of more than 2,200 lawyers and legal professionals provides comprehensive corporate, transactional, litigation, and regulatory services in major industries, including energy, financial services, healthcare, life sciences, retail and ecommerce, sports, technology, and transportation. We focus on both immediate and long-term goals with our clients, helping them address and anticipate challenges across vast and rapidly changing landscapes.

We approach every representation with an equal commitment to first understanding, and then efficiently and effectively advancing, the interests of our clients and arriving at the best results. If a client has a question, we’ll immediately find the person in our global network with the answer. If there’s a shift in the legal landscape, we’re on top of it, and our clients will be too.

Founded in 1873, we stand on the shoulders of more than 150 years of achievement, but we never rest on our reputation.