Eric Hamp’s practice spans many areas of intellectual property law. His primary areas of experience are in the litigation of patent, trademark and trade secret matters, along with the preparation and prosecution of patent applications in a variety of technological fields. Eric has assisted numerous clients ranging from small companies to Fortune 500 institutions in key phases of litigation for patent, trademark, trade dress and trade secret matters. Recently, Eric helped a Fortune 500 client in the sporting goods industry prevail on summary judgement against charges of patent infringement, as well as aiding another Fortune 500 corporation in the household products field assert multiple patents in disputes before federal District Courts and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
In his patent practice Eric represents clients from a variety of industries in the preparation and prosecution of applications before the United States Patent & Trademark Office, including applications in the chemical, healthcare, food & beverage, sporting goods, computer software and household products fields. He also assists clients obtain foreign patent protection for their inventions.
Eric has also provided counseling and opinion work for utility patent, design patent and copyright matters. In this area Eric has researched clients’ freedom to practice and evaluated the possible scope of obtainable intellectual property protection.
Before joining Banner & Witcoff, Eric worked in the chemical industry at Ecolab, Inc. and Stepan Company. At Ecolab, Eric synthesized and tested surfactant cleaning formulas for the food and beverage and cosmetic industries, as well as participating in a collaborative project with a food and beverage client in developing a sterilization method using peracetic acid solution. At Stepan, Eric synthesized formulas and tested their performance and properties in the development of environmentally friendly anionic cleaning surfactants.
Eric earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Northwestern University School of Law. While in law school, Eric gained invaluable legal experience working as a law clerk for Banner & Witcoff on a wide range of intellectual property matters. He also served as the Executive Editor of the Northwestern Journal of Technology & Intellectual Property and as the Executive Officer of the Intellectual Property Law Society. In addition, Eric published two articles in legal journals while earning his J.D., one on the extraterritoriality of U.S. patent law and another on the Peer to Patent Project. Prior to law school Eric earned a Master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, where he researched organometallic compounds, and a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Carleton College.
Eric is admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Northern District of Illinois and the Supreme Court of Illinois.
Eric practices in the Chicago office of Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.
