A former English teacher, football and wrestling coach at Fork Union Military Academy (VA), Chuck had an unusual path to intellectual property law. After teaching, he spent a few years in the Dairy Science Department at Virginia Tech before turning to law school, where his science background helped to develop his niche in the area of Intellectual Property.
As a registered patent attorney, Chuck helps clients, large and small, domestic and foreign. His practice embraces patent and trademark prosecution and protection, licensing and technology transfer, copyrights, infringement and validity opinions, interference proceedings, client counseling and litigation. While his patent expertise focuses on biotechnology, animal and plant agriculture, dairy science and medical product fields, he has assisted his clients in protecting everything from drain cleaners to nutraceutical and nutritional supplements, gender differentiation kits, pharmaceuticals, sporting goods, automotive parts, and fishing lures.
Knowing that inventions usually do not sell themselves and that it sometimes takes effort to successfully commercialize an invention, Chuck works with his clients to make sure they understand what they are getting into before starting the process. He wants them to know the dynamics of both protecting and marketing the invention.
In addition to maintaining an active practice, he is the Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Marketing Committee. He also frequently works in an of-counsel capacity with law firms that do not have an intellectual property group.
Chuck is a former national high school champion rower, collegiate wrestler and football player. His free time pursuits include bicycling, skiing, fly fishing, photography and the banjo.
Client Recommendation
“…your entire staff spoke very highly of you personally. What a great testament to you, both as a great attorney and also as a great person. Thank you again for your time in everything, we really appreciated all the last-minute efforts last year with the provisional patent filing.”- Leah and Pete Graves, CPMotorworks, Inc., Janesville, WI
Notable Representations
- A major patent infringement action involving a biotechnology patent. This matter was successfully settled to the client's advantage prior to trial. It resulted in a lucrative license agreement for the client.
- Patent expert in patent litigation dispute. Chuck participated in a major lawsuit involving a patent on steam cleaning. Based in part on his legal analysis and his deposition testimony before opposing counsel, the lawsuit was quickly terminated in favor of his client.
- Coordinated the incorporation of a biotechnology company, a joint venture arrangement between our client, an Indian biotechnology company, and a San Diego biotechnology company to research our client's patents. This was a joint collaboration involving the transfer of patents, the sale of a business and the transfer of stock (all capably handled by our law firm).
- Assisted a foreign client in forming a U.S.-based corporation to handle client's patent rights. Through our firm, a U.S.-based corporation was formed to develop and market monoclonal antibody based technology.
- Coordinated the international trademark docket of a multi-national company based in Monaco.
- Coordinated testing, marketing and licensing of our client's patented nutraceutical. This effort involved the negotiations, monitoring and patent prosecutions related to the testing of a nutraceutical by a university in South Carolina to validate the efficacy of the nutraceutical.
- Developed the licensing program for a major non-profit medical organization in Wisconsin, which currently brings in revenues of over $1 million per year.
Articles / Presentations
- Summary of Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Dress and Trade Secrets
- Time (and Money) Saving Tips and Techniques for Preparing Patent Applications
- Trademark Information and Authorization Form
- Wisconsin Attorneys Desk Reference – Patent Chapter (annual review since 1991)
- “Why Trademark Your Product? Protecting Your Brand Assets,” Wisconsin Cheese Reporter (2007)
Charitable / Civic Involvement
- Guest speaker at Columbia and Sauk County, Crawford County, Evansville, Grant/Lafayette, Green County and Viroqua Entrepreneurs and Inventors Clubs