Practice Areas
Why You Need Top Lawyers With Extensive Entrepreneurial Business Experience
We draw from extensive experience to guide our clients in navigating the path from invention or business idea through business success to create and secure generational wealth for their families. Dr. Whitlock navigated these paths for himself and his family as a successful innovator, entrepreneur, business owner, and family man. Through counsel rooted not only in legal expertise, but also in the hard-won experiences of previously navigating those same paths, we can understand and appreciate our clients’ issues from their perspective as well as from the legal perspective. From this rare dual perspective, we help our clients achieve their goals through creativity and outside-the-box thinking in a way that only those who have been there and done that themselves can.
We are our clients’ first call for their legal needs along their journey, including intellectual property, business, real estate, estate planning, and asset protection. We are their trusted advisors to guide them through whatever issues they may be facing.
We work closely with our clients in a bespoke manner to understand their unique needs and implement strategies to provide the maximum value for their businesses and families. Every client and situation is unique, so we tailor our legal services uniquely for each of our clients and their individual situations.
In addition to our direct counsel to our clients, we work with a network of highly skilled and experienced attorneys as co-counsel according to specific client needs on any particular matter.
Our Practice Areas
Intellectual Property Strategy Development
Strategies may include the judicious use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets together.
Patents
Patents protect the novel and non-obvious utility of inventions, appearance of ornamental designs, and varieties of plants.
Trademarks
Trademarks protect designations such as names or logos that serve as unique identifiers of a source for goods and services.
Copyrights
Copyrights protect creative expression such as literature, music, art, architecture, etc.
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are confidential information that have economic value based on their secrecy and whose secrecy is maintained by their owners.
Business
We handle business matters including entity formation and maintenance, due diligence, contracts, deals, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, and more.
Real Estate Closings
We represent our clients in residential real estate closings, whether they are buying or selling, in the State of Illinois.
Estate Planning
Everyone has an estate. You can plan so that what you want happens to it, or leave it to the government to decide. We help ensure that what you want happens to your estate.
Intellectual Property Strategy Development
Including But Not Limited To:
Strategies may include the judicious use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets together.
Patents
Including But Not Limited To:
- Patent counseling
- Invention mining sessions
- Patent application preparation, filing, and prosecution
- US provisional patent applications
- US nonprovisional utility patent applications
- US design patent applications
- International and foreign patent and design applications (e.g., PCT, Paris Convention, Hague Agreement, or direct)
- Freedom to Operate patent searches, analyses, and opinions
- Patentability searches, analyses, and opinions
- Patent invalidity searches, analyses, and opinions
- Post-grant proceedings at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB)
- Reissue
- Ex Parte Reexam
- Inter Partes Reexam
- Inter Partes Review
- Post-Grant Review
- Supplemental Examination
- Post-Grant Validity Review of Business Method Patents
- Assignments
- Licensing
- Enforcement against infringers
- Defense against claims of infringement
- Litigation and litigation support
Trademarks
Including But Not Limited To:
- Trademark counseling
- Trademark clearance searches, analyses, and opinions
- Trademark registration application preparation, filing, and prosecution
- State trademark registration applications and prosecution
- US trademark registration applications and prosecution
- International and foreign trademark registration applications (e.g., Madrid Protocol, or direct)
- Trademark monitoring
- Trademark oppositions
- Trademark renewals
- Assignments
- Licensing
- Enforcement against infringers
- Defense against claims of infringement
- Litigation and litigation support
Copyrights
Including But Not Limited To:
- Copyright counseling
- US copyright registration application preparation, filing, and prosecution
- US copyright enforcement
- Assignments
- Licensing
- Enforcement against infringers
- Defense against claims of infringement
- Litigation and litigation support
Trade Secrets
Including But Not Limited To:
- Trade secret counseling
- Strategies, documentation, and agreements for trade secret protection
- Trade secret and confidential information training for businesses
- Trade secret enforcement
- Defense against claims of trade secret misappropriation
Business
Including But Not Limited To:
- Advising
- Due Diligence
- Business Deals
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Term sheets
- Letters of Intent (LOI)
- Negotiation
- Legal Agreements
- Closing
Real Estate Closings
Including But Not Limited To:
We represent our clients in residential real estate closings, whether they are buying or selling, in the State of Illinois.
Estate Planning
Including But Not Limited To:
Everyone has an estate. You can plan so that what you want happens to it, or leave it to the government to decide. We help ensure that what you want happens to your estate.