James P. Hanrath

Jim has practiced law for nearly 40 years. A member of the firm's Intellectual Property & Technology group, Jim is a registered U.S. patent attorney serving the needs of publicly held corporations, private enterprises, small businesses and individual inventors.

Jim is experienced in all aspects of protective right procurement, maintenance, exploitation and litigation (in both domestic and foreign jurisdictions) relative to utility and design patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, e-commerce, software, business method and unfair competition matters.

Jim's emphasis on patent prosecution and litigation has exposed him to numerous areas of industrial arts, including medical, pharmaceutical, diagnostic, chemical composition, manufacturing, carrier line production, retail display, component part and assembly, information systems, and security and fraud detection technologies. His ability to serve clients in diverse art areas is further enhanced by his degree in chemical technology and his LL.M. in intellectual property law. 

In addition to consulting and transactional matters, Jim has served as lead counsel in state and federal court trials and has presented several oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Federal Circuit. Such practical exposure to a myriad of client needs, from initial consultation and guidance, to worldwide protective right acquisition and commercial exploitation, to litigation defense and infringement prosecution, has made him a valued attorney to a varied clientele of inventors, authors, touring musicians, merchants, service providers, entrepreneurs, laboratories and other business concerns.

Jim has served as an arbitrator for the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Lake County, Illinois. He has also served as Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Property at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, Corporate Education Division.