A patent is only as good as your willingness to use it – and your ability to respond when someone points one at you. Most disputes never see a courtroom: they're resolved through demand letters, marketplace processes, USPTO proceedings, and negotiated outcomes. That's the terrain this practice covers, with trial counsel brought in when a matter genuinely needs the courtroom.
Enforcing your patent
It starts with an infringement analysis: mapping your claims onto the accused product, element by element, honestly. From there the escalation ladder runs from a cease-and-desist letter, to marketplace takedowns, to licensing discussions, to litigation. Most matters resolve on the lower rungs – when the letter is backed by a claim chart that shows you've done the work.
- Claim charts and infringement analysis before any demand goes out
- Cease-and-desist and licensing-demand letters
- Amazon Brand Registry and APEX patent evaluations to pull infringing listings
- Escalation strategy sized to the infringer and to your budget
Defending against an assertion
A demand letter is not a judgment. The response starts with analysis: does the claim actually read on your product, and is the patent valid against the prior art? From there the options include a non-infringement or invalidity opinion, a design-around, a negotiated license – or challenging the patent at the USPTO.
Post-grant proceedings at the USPTO
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board offers inter partes review (IPR) and ex parte reexamination – ways to test a patent's validity before the agency that granted it, typically faster and far cheaper than resolving validity in district court. Whether you're asserting or defending, the availability of these proceedings shapes every negotiation.
When it goes to federal court
Patent infringement cases are heard exclusively in federal district court – for Wisconsin companies, typically the Eastern District in Milwaukee or the Western District in Madison. Our role is prosecution counsel and strategist: we prepare the claim analysis, manage the USPTO side (including any parallel IPR), and coordinate with experienced trial counsel we bring in for the litigation itself. You get courtroom specialists at the table without losing the attorney who knows your technology and your portfolio.
Got a demand letter? Don't answer it – and don't ignore it. Both are mistakes. Send it to us first; the analysis of what the claim actually covers comes before any response.