WASHINGTON – McKool Smith is announcing a new firm office in Washington, DC, which will provide a home for the firm’s fledgling international trade trial practice area.
The firm’s expansion into the nation’s capital marks McKool Smith’s first office outside Texas. The new office will provide the firm with additional expertise in cases involving international trade issues, as well as commercial and intellectual property litigation.
“According to its own estimate, the number of patent disputes before the ITC has soared since 2000,” says firm founder Mike McKool. “We’re very excited to be moving into Washington where the ITC is headquartered.” “The landscape is changing in patent litigation,” he continued. “I believe the ITC will continue to emerge as the preferred forum for resolving patent and trademark disputes.”
The U.S. International Trade Commission an independent, quasi-judicial federal agency charged with protecting U.S. industries from illegal imports and unfair competition. Most of the complaints investigated by the ITC involve intellectual property rights, including patent infringement and trademark infringement by imported goods.
The ITC has grown in prominence as a forum to resolve IP-related disputes because of the extensive experience and training of its administrative law judges and because matters are typically resolved within 12 to 15 months. According to the Fiscal Year 2008 Budget Justification for the U.S. International Trade Commission, presented to Congress, “…the Commission’s Intellectual Property-based Investigations caseload has ‘exploded’ in recent years, more than tripling since FY (fiscal year) 2000.”
In addition to the firm’s Dallas headquarters, McKool Smith maintains offices in Austin and Marshall, Texas, and firm attorneys routinely can be found in courtrooms across the country.
McKool Smith has more than 90 attorneys handling commercial and intellectual property litigation for national and international clients. The firm is recognized as one of the premier litigation law firms in the United States, having earned significant courtroom victories for clients such as Electronic Data Systems, BearingPoint, Ericsson, Medtronic, Inc. and National Instruments.
McKool Smith’s new office is located at 1025 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1000, Washington, DC 20036.
For more information, please contact Gary Eden at 214-978-4000 or Mike Androvett at 800-559-4534 or mike@legalpr.com.