
Counsel
Keith Stolte
Chicago
Practice areas
Overview
Keith has over 28 years of experience in the fields of trademark, copyright and unfair competition counseling and litigation, patent litigation, including Hatch-Waxman generic drug cases, trade secrets litigation and general commercial litigation throughout the United States. He has been a prolific author on intellectual property matters and has given scholarly presentations on intellectual property law for Law Seminars International and the John Marshall Law School of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Keith received a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Chicago and his Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude, from The John Marshall Law School of the University of Illinois at Chicago. While in law school, Keith was elected to the Board of the John Marshall Law Review where he served as Executive Editor of Student Publications. He was also active in the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition.
Education
- University of Illinois Chicago John Marshall Law School, J.D., Magna Cum Laude
- University of Chicago, B.A. in History
Representative Cases – Trademark/Unfair Competition/Copyright
- Successfully represented a prominent national wrestling organization in a trademark infringement and breach of license case at both the federal district and appellate courts.
- Represented an international tobacco company in a trademark infringement and gray market importation case leading to a favorable settlement.
- Defended an international cosmetic and home goods company against charges of trademark infringement brought by an iconic restaurant leading to favorable settlement.
- Successfully represented a national confectioner in a major trade dress case against an international food conglomerate and obtained a seven-figure settlement.
- Successfully defended an international office supply retailer against allegations of trademark infringement and importation of gray market luxury products.
- In a decade-long David and Goliath battle, successfully represented a small apparel manufacturer against an international fashion conglomerate on crossclaims of trademark infringement at the district and appellate courts.
- Successfully represented a regional restaurant chain and obtained summary judgment against claims of trademark infringement, breach of license and domain name ownership dispute.
Representative Cases – Patent
- Obtained summary judgment for a national diaper company sued for patent infringement and obtained an award of all attorneys’ fees.
- Successfully represented a prominent nephrologist and inventor of medical equipment in a major patent infringement litigation and obtained an eight-figure settlement.
- Successfully defended an international office supply retailer against claims of design patent and trade dress infringement on an office chair design.
- Successfully defended an international travel company and obtained summary judgment on allegations of software patent infringement.
- Defended an international manufacturer of doors and windows and obtained summary judgment against allegations of design patent infringement.
- Defended through trial one of the largest Chinese apparel manufacturers on allegations of patent infringement and obtained an award of attorneys’ fees.
- Obtained summary judgment of non-infringement on behalf of national computer networking equipment company and successfully obtained a jury verdict on counterclaims of patent infringement; secured an affirmance on appeal.
- Successfully settled Hatch-Waxman patent litigation on behalf of a small pharmaceutical company against an international conglomerate.
- Obtained a favorable appellate decision in Hatch-Waxman patent case which allowed the client, a generic pharmaceutical manufacturer, to enter a market for a generic pharmaceutical product amounting to ten figures in sales.
Publications
- If it Walks Like a Duck: A Proposal to Unify U.S. Customs Treatment of Infringing Imports, 29 John Marshall Law Review 711 (1996)
- OFAC: Hands Off Intellectual Property Rights, 4 Univ. of Georgia Journal of Intellectual Property Law 25 (1996)
- Remedying Judicial Limitations on Trademark Remedies: An Accounting of Profits Should Not Require a Finding of Bad Faith, 87 Trademark Reporter 271 (1997)
- Remedying Judicial Limitations on Trademark Remedies: Monetary Relief Should Not Require Proof of Actual Confusion, 75 Univ. of Denver Law Review 230 (1997)
- How Early Did Anglo-American Trademark Law Begin? An Answer to Schechter’s Conundrum, 8 Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal 505, reprinted, 88 Trademark Reporter 564 (1998); reprinted TRADEMARK AND UNFAIR COMPETITION LAW, Elgar Publ. (2014)
- Functionality Challenges to Incontestable Trademark Registrations Before and After the Trademark Law Treaty Implementation Act, 92 Trademark Reporter 1094 (Sept./Oct. 2002)
- Avoiding Hague Convention Headaches — An Analysis of Lanham Act Section 1(e) Service of Process on Foreign Nationals, 92 Trademark Reporter 1417 (Nov./Dec. 2002)
- A Response to Jerome Gilson’s Call for an Overhaul of the Lanham Act, 94 Trademark Reporter 1335 (Nov./Dec. 2004)
- Foreign Term of Art in License Must be Construed in Foreign Technical Sense, World Trademark Review (Dec. 2009)
- Credit Rating Agency Scores Low in Trademark Contest, AIPLA Newsstand (Sept. 2011)
- Case Study – FICO v. Experian Information Solutions, Law360 (Oct. 2011)
- Applause Can Come with a Big Price Tag: Michael Jordan v. Jewel Food Stores, National Law Journal (April 2014)
- The Aereo Crashed: Cheap Internet TV Thwarted?, American Broadcasting Co., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., National Law Review (Aug. 2014)
- Is Cheap Internet TV Dead? Duck Hunting Season Comes Early to the Supreme Court, Intellectual Property and Technology Law Journal, Vol. 26, No. 10 (Oct. 2014)
- Fox News Network, LLC v. TVEyes, Inc., E-Commerce Law Reports, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Oct. 2014)
- Confidentiality Agreements Are Not Enforceable in the Absence of Reasonable Efforts to Preserve Confidentiality, The Licensing Journal (Jan. 2015)
- In re Lenz v. Universal Music Corp., E-Commerce Law Reports, Vol. 15, No. 5 (Oct. 2015)
- Of Dog Food and Judicial Ethics: Clarence Thomas’ First Failure to Recuse Himself, Int’l Journal of Law, Ethics, and Tech (2022)



