As a firm that has been at the forefront of intellectual property law for more than a century, Leydig, Voit & Mayer has helped shape the IP landscape. With clients in fields ranging from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to consumer household goods and financial services, the firm specializes in patent, trademark and copyright litigation, registration and prosecution, unfair competition, and franchising and licensing.

No Intellectual Property Lite Here

Leydig was founded in 1893 in Rockford, Illinois by attorney Luther Miller, who filed his first patent application just after he was admitted to the Illinois Bar. A few years later, Miller moved his growing firm to the Windy City. By the middle of the next century, Leydig attorneys made an appearance before the feared nine, where they argued a patent infringement lawsuit using the “doctrine of equivalents.” In the 1970s, the firm was also involved in the industry-wide spat over whether Miller Brewing Company could prohibit other brewers from using the words “lite” or “light” in their lower-calorie brews. Since Miller's first patent application, the U.S. has issued millions more patents, and Leydig has stayed in the IP game. Since then, Leydig has grown to an outfit with nearly 80 attorneys and additional offices in Virginia, Colorado, and California, and international locations in China and Germany.

Just IP It

From its roots as a Chi-town IP boutique, Leydig has become one of the most active trademark firms in the U.S. Leyvig attorneys have handled IP issues for clients like aerospace manufacturer Barber-Colman Company, Microsoft, the National Institutes of Health, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, Agfa Gevaert NV, Aetna, Cabot Corporation, Discover Financial Services, Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, Caterpillar Inc. and the American Express Company. The firm has worked on projects from a multibillion-dollar rebrand to the defense of a long-standing client in a software infringement lawsuit.   

Like other technically-minded intellectual property firms, Leydig is not for those who fear polysyllabic words. Attorneys at the firm specialize in a variety of technologies, including mechanics, electronics, chemistry, computer software and genetics, enabling them to delve into matters like hybridoma and monoclonal antibody technologies, semiconductor polishing compositions, and combinatorial chemistry. That’s why when hiring, the firm looks for experience, or at least interest, in the hard sciences. But not everything Leydig attorneys do is such a mouthful—three of the firm's lawyers helped Nike establish that its slogan, “Just Do It,” was a “famous” trademark.

Learning at Leydig

Leydig prioritizes professional development to ensure attorneys and agents are continuously improving and keeping up-to-date on the latest developments in IP. The firm’s Professional Develop Committee hosts training programs for new associates who are just launching their careers to more-senior associates looking to expand their skill set as they progress in their careers. These training programs aren’t just fluff—they comprise dozens of sessions over a series of months. The committee also hosts monthly CLE lunches where speakers present topics that are timely and relevant to the practice of IP law.