Robert Resis has over 25 years of experience in successfully representing clients in a wide variety of intellectual property matters. Mr. Resis' primary concentration is in trial and appellate work. Mr. Resis was part of the trial team in the successful litigation in Amgen Inc. vs. Chugai Pharmaceuticals, et al., a leading biotechnology patent case (including a significant role in preparing Amgen's winning post-trial brief). Mr. Resis’ accomplishments include the following: In 2010, Mr. Resis prepared pretrial and trial papers to help obtain a jury verdict of over $19 million in patent infringement damages for a firm client against a competitor. The jury verdict was upheld by the district court after denying the competitor’s post-trial motions.
In 2010, after limited discovery, Mr. Resis obtained an agreed order of dismissal with prejudice of a non-practicing entity’s claims of patent infringement that had been filed against a firm client in connection with its on-line order and delivery business. The firm client did not pay the NPE any money and did not take a license.
In 2009, Mr. Resis successfully defeated a motion by an accused infringer to stay a case pending inter partes reexamination. The case settled shortly after the motion to stay was denied.
In 2009, Mr. Resis prepared pre- and post-trial papers in helping to obtain and maintain a jury verdict in favor of a firm client that all the patent claims asserted by the opposing party were invalid for obviousness.
In 2008, Mr. Resis successfully represented a small domain name owner that had been threatened over the years with a trademark infringement suit by large, publicly-traded company having several registered trademarks and over 200 domain name registrations. Mr. Resis filed a declaratory judgment suit asserting laches and first use against the large company and in the course of the litigation moved to include trademark infringement and unfair competition claims against the large company. Less than four months after filing suit, the case settled for many times more than the large company originally offered to purchase the domain name from Mr. Resis’ client.
Mr. Resis takes pride in successfully representing clients against larger, well-financed opponents. For example, Mr. Resis achieved the successful enforcement of a patent in Texas for a small start up company against a multimillion-dollar defense effort by the primary and decades-long vendor in the industry. Mr. Resis achieved this success within 18 months of filing suit and despite summary judgment and patent reexamination efforts by the defendant. Mr. Resis' firm prosecuted the successfully enforced patent. Southwest Die Corp. v. Ontario Die Company Limited, Civil Action No. EP-01-CA-0204-PRM (W.D. Tex.).
Mr. Resis is also experienced in the procurement, counseling and licensing aspects of intellectual property rights. He has successfully prosecuted patents in a variety of arts, including the chemical, medical device, and pharmaceutical arts. He has also effectively implemented the reexamination procedures of the Patent Office to the benefit of the firm's clients, including clients involved in litigation.
Mr. Resis received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois. Between college and law school, he worked as a refinery process engineer at Chevron U.S.A. Mr. Resis earned his J.D. from Northwestern University and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Supreme Court of Illinois, the Northern District of Illinois and numerous other U.S. District Courts. He is registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and is a member of several professional associations, including the Intellectual Property Owners Association.
Mr. Resis is the author of the book “Preliminary Relief in Patent Infringement Disputes,” published by the ABA in 2011. Mr. Resis is also the author of numerous articles on intellectual property law, including “Lessons to Learn from Post-KSR Pharmaceutical Obviousness Decisions,” ABA Landslide (Nov./Dec. 2009 Vol. 2, No. 2), "Reducing the Need for Markman Determinations," John Marshall Law School Review of Intellectual Property Law (Fall 2004) (his proposal to require patent applicants to declare during prosecution whether they are relying on 35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6 and to identify the corresponding structure, material or acts for performing the specified function was adopted by the U.S. Patent Office in its 2006 rules for Accelerated Examination), "History of the Patent Troll and Lessons Learned," ABA Intellectual Property Litigation (Winter 2006), and "Solutions for Reducing Patent Application Pendency," John Marshall Law School News Source (Spring 2006).
Mr. Resis practices in the Chicago office of Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., where he has spent his entire legal career.
