Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery (Fitch Even) is a midsized law firm

Law firm

A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...

 that specializes in intellectual property

Intellectual property

Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...

 (IP) and technology-related law. The firm originated in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 in 1859, and now has offices throughout the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and an international client base. Most of the firm's attorneys are registered U.S. patent attorneys

Patent attorney

A patent attorney is an attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing an opposition...

 (i.e., authorized to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in at least one state in the U.S.) and have backgrounds in high technology or the chemical and life sciences.

Practice

Fitch Even's litigation practice involves all areas of IP including patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

, trade secret

Trade secret

A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information which is not generally known or reasonably ascertainable, by which a business can obtain an economic advantage over competitors or customers...

, trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

, copyright

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...

, unfair competition

Unfair competition

Unfair competition in a sense means that the competitors compete on unequal terms, because favourable or disadvantageous conditions are applied to some competitors but not to others; or that the actions of some competitors actively harm the position of others with respect to their ability to...

, and related commercial disputes. The firm served as counsel in the landmark

Landmark decision

Landmark court decisions establish new precedents that establish a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially change the interpretation of existing law...

 patent case Arrhythmia v. Corazonix that dealt with the issue of patentable subject matter

Patentable subject matter

Patentable, statutory or patent-eligible subject matter is subject matter which is susceptible of patent protection. The laws or patent practices of many countries suggest that certain subject matter is or is not something for which a patent should be granted.Together with novelty, inventive step...

 before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The firm successfully argued that a software

Software patents under United States patent law

Software or computer programs are not explicitly mentioned in United States patent law. In the face of new technologies, decisions of the United States Supreme Court and United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the latter part of the 20th century sought to redefine the boundary...

-based mathematical method used in monitoring a patient's heart was patentable subject matter. The Federal Circuit relied on Arrhythmia in a subsequent case, State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group, that expanded patentable subject matter to include business methods

Business method patent

Business method patents are a class of patents which disclose and claim new methods of doing business. This includes new types of e-commerce, insurance, banking, tax compliance etc. Business method patents are a relatively new species of patent and there have been several reviews investigating the...

.

The firm also prepares and prosecutes

Patent prosecution

Patent prosecution describes the interaction between applicants and their representatives, and a patent office with regard to a patent, or an application for a patent...

 foreign and domestic patent applications, as well as trademark and copyright applications. On average, more than 300 patents per year are issued by the U.S. Patent Office with Fitch Even listed as the legal representative. The firm also filed over 470 trademark applications in 2006.

Founding

Fitch Even is the oldest law firm in continuous practice in Chicago. At its founding in 1859, Goodwin, Larned & Goodwin (Fitch Even's original name) was a general practice firm, but by 1877 the firm was holding itself out as a specialist in the area of IP. The firm has gone through several name changes in its existence, but the chain back to its founding in 1859 is yet to be broken.

Offices

• Boulder
  Boulder, Colorado
  Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
  
  
• Chicago
• Los Angeles
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
  
  
• San Diego
  San Diego, California
  San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
  
  
• San Luis Obispo
  San Luis Obispo, California
  San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
  
  
• Washington, DC

External links

• Official Firm Website
• Profile from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
  LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell
  -History:The 140-year history of Martindale-Hubbell begins with two separate publications:The Martindale DirectoryThe Martindale Directory was first published in 1868 by James B. Martindale, a lawyer and businessman...