Greer, Burns & Crain, Ltd.

Super Lawyers and Rising Stars

editor — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 22:22:59 +0000

Greer Burns & Crain is pleased to announce that three of its attorneys have been listed among Illinois Super Lawyers and Rising Stars for 2012:

Patrick G. Burns, Illinois Super Lawyers, Intellectual Property
Laura R. Wanek, Illinois Rising Stars, Intellectual Property
Amy C. Ziegler, Illinois Rising Stars, Intellectual Property

No more than five percent of the lawyers in the state are named to Super Lawyers, and no more than 2.5 percent are named to Rising Stars. Selecting the attorneys involves a rigorous, multi-stage process including peer nominations, peer evaluations and third party research. Each Super Lawyers candidate is evaluated on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process for Rising Stars mirrors the Super Lawyers selection process except that: 1) to be eligible for inclusion in Rising Stars, a candidate must be either 40 years old or younger or in practice for ten years or less; and 2) Candidates for Rising Stars do not go through peer evaluation. Selections for both lists are made on a state-by-state basis annually.

Favorable trade secret judgment

wes — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:09:47 +0000

On May 13, 2011, the Washington State Superior Court entered final judgment for equitable claims in favor of GBC client Homax Products, Inc. This equitable judgment followed a favorable February, 2011 jury verdict obtained by GBC lawyer Steve Fallon for GBC client Homax Products, Inc., in the matter of Northwest Product Design Group, LLC, et al v. Homax Products et al. The plaintiffs had alleged trade secret theft, breach of contract and related claims, and had sought over $1M in damages. No liability was found and no damages were awarded.

Tom Hill joins GBC

tony — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:45:30 +0000

In September, 2011, GBC was pleased to welcome Tom Hill to its family. Tom has had a long and diverse career, and looks forward to applying his extensive knowledge to assist GBC clients. Tom has been a well known intellectual property attorney in Chicago for decades in private practice, in-house for Zenith, and at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California. Tom began his career as an engineer with the Computer Sciences Corporation and Naval Air Systems Command in Washington, D.C.

Injunction and consent judgment

tony — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:39:39 +0000

On August 16, 2011, GBC lawyer Steve Fallon was pleased to have a consent judgment and permanent injunction entered for GBC client Petersen Industries, Inc.. for its U.S. Patent No. 7,353,652. The injunction was awarded by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi as part of a negotiated settlement in the matter of Petersen Industries, Inc. v. Hol-Mac Corporation, Case No.: 4:10CV152-CWR-LRA.

Re-exam request granted

tony — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:39:16 +0000

On August 30, 2011, the United States Patent Office granted a re-examination request filed by GBC lawyer Steve Fallon for re-examination of U.S. Patent No. 7,425,268. The ‘268 had been asserted against GBC client Waterfall Pond Supply Company in RW Distributing, Inc. et al v. Waterfall Pond Supply, Case No. 2:10-cv-01626-RSL, in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington. That case has been stayed pending the re-examination.

700 sites taken down in GBC anti-counterfeiting suit

tony — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:47:07 +0000

GBC prides itself in its anti-counterfeiting skills and capabilities, and our ability to protect our clients’ trademarks from the damage caused by counterfeit merchandise.

Nowhere are our capabilities stronger than on the internet, which has become a haven for fraudulently represented counterfeit goods. GBC regularly gets hundreds of websites selling counterfeit merchandise suspended from domestic website servers, but the international nature of the internet demands an international response, and GBC is ready to protect its clients’ interests worldwide.

Recently, GBC attorneys forced the suspension of approximately 700 counterfeit sites on servers in four foreign countries. After much investigation and follow-up, all four foreign servers agreed to “voluntarily” suspend the sites. GBC now also has open lines of communication with these high tier ISPs that will facilitate efforts in getting new sites that move to these servers down as well as any future resellers we might encounter. While some sites will reappear on new servers, losing their “safe haven” will be a major disruption for counterfeiters moving forward.

Server details and outcomes

After significant investigation, we were able to identify two European based servers in the Netherlands and Luxemburg with reseller customers collectively hosting over 525 counterfeit sites. Specifically, the GBC counterfeit goods investigation determined that one server was actually a long chain of hosting re-sellers that eventually ended with a reseller in China. After weeks of persistence and multiple follow-ups, both servers agreed to comply with our take down demands and all sites have been suspended.
A Malaysian based server initially ignored our complaints and refused to take any action against counterfeit sites it was hosting. After working through local counsel and continuing to apply pressure by threatening to file a complaint with a local trade association, the server began complying with our demands. All 80+ sites on this server that we originally complained about are now suspended.
We encountered a Singapore based server that was hosting almost 100 counterfeit sites. While this server was initially responsive to our complaints, many sites would be suspended only to reappear on the same IP a few days later. We began sending follow-ups every few days and lobbied via on-line chat for the IPs to be shut down. After much effort, this server disconnected the IPs and all 100 sites were shut down.

Roger Greer — in Memoriam

tony — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 05:16:32 +0000

Greer, Burns & Crain is sad to announce the passing of our Senior Founding Partner and long-time friend Roger D. Greer. Roger passed away in February, 2011. As we recognized long ago, Roger was an exemplary practitioner of intellectual property law — the heart of his legal practice in Chicago for nearly 40 years — and an exemplary human being.

Roger received both his bachelors in Electrical Engineering (1964) and his law degree (1967) from the University of Nebraska. His legal achievements include high-level litigation of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, unfair competition, contract, legal malpractice, RICO and antitrust matters in state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as the expert practice of transactional law including licensing and other transactional matters.

Roger was a member of the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; Trial bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois; U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; U.S. Federal Claims Court and the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois.

His position as one of the most experienced and accomplished intellectual property lawyers in Chicago was widely recognized, and he was chosen as a 2005 Leading Lawyer in Intellectual Property Law and selected as a 2006 Illinois Super Lawyer. His opinions on an extremely varied range of intellectual property legal issues were in constant demand — both within and outside our firm.

Roger will be sorely missed by us, as well as our firm’s many other partners, associate attorneys, staff and clients.

The name Greer comes to us through Clan Gregor, and is believed to come from a Greek word that means “Watcher”. We hope that as he watches our evolution of Greer, Burns & Crain that we live up to his ideals.

Roger is survived by his wife Ginny; daughter Sally (Greg) Haas; grandchildren A.J. and Taylor Haas; brother Gordon Greer, and three nieces and a nephew.

Per our friends’ wishes, memorials may be made to:

Misericordia

6300 North Ridge Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60660-1017

misericordia.com

Cancer Wellness Center

215 Revere Drive

Northbrook, Illinois 60062

cancerwellness.org

Kellogg Cancer Care Center

c/o NorthShore University HealthSystem Foundation

1033 University Place, Suite 450

Evanston, Illinois 60201

northshore.org/about-us/foundation/facts/kellogg-cancer-center.aspx