Jerold B. Schnayer, a well-known intellectual property lawyer, has joined Locke Lord’s Chicago office as a Partner in the IP Litigation Practice Group.
Schnayer, who previously was a partner of Husch Blackwell LLP, practices patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret law, including prosecution, counseling, licensing and litigation matters. During the past several years, he has been responsible for complex patent infringement, copyright, trademark and trade secret litigation in the United States and foreign countries. Many of these litigations have involved high technology electronic, computer and medical related technology.
“Jerry will be an extremely valuable addition to our already strong IP group,” said Jennifer Kenedy, Managing Partner of Locke Lord’s Chicago office. “IP litigation is a fast changing field of law and one that reaches across the globe. His skill set and experience will complement, build on and further expand the high profile work we are doing for our clients here in the United States and around the world.”
Schnayer has defended and prosecuted numerous complex patent infringement lawsuits throughout the world. He was lead trial counsel in a patent-related lawsuit of a client sued for more than $750 million, where, after a seven-week trial, he obtained for his client a decision of no liability. He also was lead trial counsel in a number of other significant cases, including a 10-year, multidistrict litigation against all major hard disk drive manufacturers which resulted in more than $200 million in license fees for his client.
Schnayer has developed and executed innovative patent enforcement strategies for licensing entire market segments and has negotiated more than 200 patent license agreements in the United States, Europe, and South East Asia. Many of these agreements have been with large multinational companies.
For several years, he was a lecturer for Patent Resources Group and has taught “Electronics & Computer Patent & Copyright Practice.” He is a co-author of Electronics & Computer Patent & Copyright Practice, 2 Vol., 1993 PRG, Washington, D.C.
Prior to his position with Husch Blackwell, Schnayer was a founding principal of Welsh & Katz Ltd. and before that a partner at Fitch, Even, Tabin, Flannery & Welsh. A graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, he has also held positions in the U.S. Department of Energy as a patent attorney, and at Motorola, Inc. as an electrical engineer.
