GBC News

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.  

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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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.

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