Hammond, Michael E.

Mark began his Intellectual Property career over twenty years ago when he joined the firm of Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery in Chicago as a patent clerk.  After graduation from law school, Mark joined the Fitch firm and was responsible for preparation and prosecution of United States and International patent applications, drafting patent clearance, validity and infringement opinions, drafting license agreements, as well as, assisting in a numerous patent, trademark and copyright litigations.

In 2000, after becoming a partner at the Fitch firm, Mark moved his practice to the Chicago office of Barnes & Thornburg where he was responsible for all aspects of intellectual property counseling for several significant corporate clients. In this role, he negotiated and drafted key corporate intellectual property licensing agreements and dispute resolution settlements.  He was responsible for drafting infringement, validity and product clearance opinions for a wide variety of clients.  In addition, he prepared and prosecuted a variety of patent applications throughout the world.  He was also responsible for supervision of junior litigators and strategic decision making in a number of successful patent and trademark lawsuits.  In addition, at Barnes & Thornburg, Mark was responsible for mentoring and training a number of junior patent and trademark attorneys.

During his Intellectual Property Career, Mark has represented clients owning a broad range of technologies in the mechanical, medical and chemical arts including, for example, plastic injection molding, household appliance manufacture, automotive parts manufacture, medical diagnostic equipment, medical sterilization equipment, biologically active peptides, industrial chemicals, non-digestible fat substitutes, respiratory assistance devices, and air filtration systems.

In 2003, Mark fulfilled his long held dream of opening his own law office to provide clients an attractive combination of personal service, expertise in the Intellectual Property field, and value for the legal dollar.  In keeping with this value oriented theme in recent years, Mark has been able to resolve, on favorable terms, a number of patent, trademark and trade secret disputes for his clients without resorting to expensive litigation.  He has also successfully negotiated resolution of a multimillion dollar indemnity claim against a client resulting from its customer’s intellectual property litigation.

Mark has been active in a variety of voluntary community organizations, including providing Pro Bono Legal Counsel for Active Citizen’s for Responsible Expansion, Inc., which twice defeated the proposed development of $300 million dollar retail complex in a residential neighborhood.  More recently, Mark has been a chair of several committees for the Glenbard West Booster Board. He has also coached soccer and basketball for the Glen Ellyn Park District as well as serving for five years as both an assistant and head coach for the Glen Ellyn Titans Travel Basketball Program.