McAndrews Shareholder Christopher V. Carani to Lead ABA Webinar on Design Patent and Trade Dress Litigation

01.07.15

On January 21, 2015, 1:00 – 2:00 pm EST, McAndrews, Held & Malloy shareholder Christopher V. Carani will present a complimentary, ABA-hosted webinar on design patent litigation, titled “Design Patent and Trade Dress Litigation: More than Meets the Eye.”

As a leading authority on design law and design-related IP issues, Carani was invited by the ABA to discuss the increasing importance for effective and enforceable design protection. During the one-hour webinar, Carani will discuss:

  • Design patent-specific litigation issues, including best practices for asserting, and defending against, claims of design patent infringement, the design patent infringement standard, design patent claim construction, the ins and outs of design patent drawings, design patent defenses of prosecution history estoppel, anticipation, obviousness, indefiniteness.
  • Insights and strategies for cases involving both trade dress and design patent infringement claims.
  • Significant and distinct differences between design patents and utility patents and trade dress.
  • Potential challenges and opportunities when it comes to design patent litigation.

To register for the complimentary webinar, click here.

Christopher V. Carani is a partner at McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd., an intellectual property law firm based in Chicago. For more than 15 years, Carani has been a leading voice in the field of design IP, which regards the intersection of design rights, trade dress and copyright law. Carani counsels clients on strategic design enforcement and protection issues; he is often called upon to render infringement, validity and design-around opinions and serve as a legal consultant/expert in design-related IP cases.  Carani has extensive experience litigating design IP cases, including representations before U.S. district courts, the Federal Circuit, the ITC and the U.S. Supreme Court. In the landmark design patent case Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, he authored amicus briefs on behalf of the AIPLA at both the petition and en banc stages. In Calmar, Inc. v. Arminak & Assoc., Carani authored a brief on behalf of the Industrial Design Society of America in support of a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carani is the former chair of the ABA’s Design Rights Committee, and also the AIPLA’s Committee on Industrial Designs.  He is currently the U.S. delegate for AIPPI’s Design Law Committee.  Carani received his J.D. from The University of Chicago and his B.S. in Engineering from Marquette University in Milwaukee. Carani is a frequent contributor to CNN on IP issues and its impact on businesses, and is often called upon to provide comment to other media outlets, such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  Away from the law, Carani is a studied jazz musician playing upright bass on the Chicago jazz circuit.