Rich is past Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group, and until recently has served on the firm's Management and Executive Committees.
He has many years of experience in the preparation and prosecution of patent and trademark applications in the United States and all of the major industrialized foreign countries. His patent application experience includes preparation and prosecution to issuance of patent portfolios for many of the developing technologies from universities located in the Midwest. Illustrative technologies include high speed digital switching devices, business method patents, and computerized medical devices including imaging devices.
With his business background and education, his practice has grown to include the negotiation and drafting of licenses and other agreements for the sale of corporate assets including technology, and other contracts for high technology-based businesses. In addition to being heavily involved in agreement work, his practice further includes routinely providing counseling and opinions related to patent infringement and validity issues for clients both prior to and after products have been designed, manufactured, and sold.
He also counsels various clients on trademark issues related to registrability and infringement including one client with over 250 U.S. trademark registrations. His litigation experience is in both patent and trademark matters, although he has been particularly successful in trademark litigation, having been co-counsel in a trial where a Jury returned a verdict on a counterclaim for over $3 million and lead counsel in successfully defending a small California start-up company in a preliminary injunction action brought by a major St. Louis company in the St. Louis Federal District Court.