Jansson Munger McKinley & Kirby Ltd.

Mr. Jansson, founding shareholder (1984), has extensive experience as lead counsel in litigation and disputed matters and in a variety of other intellectual property matters in both corporate and private law practice.

Particular experience includes patent and trademark law, trade dress law, unfair competition and related antitrust law. Mr. Jansson served on the Federal Judicial Selection Commission and the Commerce Department’s IP Law Committee. He was a Republican nominee for Congress.

Earlier, he was with S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.

Mr. Jansson is licensed in Wisconsin, Illinois, and the United States Patent & Trademark Office, and in many federal trial and appellate courts, including the Federal Circuit, the Seventh Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

Education:

• BS (Mathematics), 1966, Carnegie Mellon University
• Doctor of Laws, 1969, University of Virginia

Member:

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Wisconsin Intellectual Property Law Association
• Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago

Mr. Munger is a shareholder of the firm and has been a member of the firm for over 25 years. John manages our Lake Forest, Illinois office and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and the states of Illinois and Wisconsin.

John actively represents our firm’s clients in intellectual property prosecution, litigation, and transactional matters. His patent practice includes patentability, freedom-to-practice, and infringement opinions. He assists clients with transactions involving patents and other intellectual property. John’s patent prosecution background includes extensive work in pharmacy automation and in the mechanical and chemical art areas in the U.S. and internationally. He has litigated patent infringement and related lawsuits in courts throughout the U.S. as well as before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

John is also actively engaged in U.S. and international trademark prosecution and litigation for our clients. He provides trademark availability, freedom-to-practice, and infringement opinions. John’s trademark practice includes extensive trademark prosecution work in the alcoholic beverage field where the trademark represents a significant portion of the value of the brand. John is actively engaged in policing and enforcing our client’s trademark rights and in defending our clients in the courts and before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and foreign trademark offices.

Other areas of John’s practice include copyrights, trade secret protection, and employment agreements to protect intellectual property rights.

John serves as President of the Board of Directors of the University of Illinois Association of Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity and on the Board of Governors of the Lake County Republican Federation. He is Chairman of the Vernon Township (Illinois) Republicans. John is a current FAA-licensed pilot. John and his wife Leslie have two adult sons and are 25-year residents of Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Education:

• University of Illinois, BA 1981, MS 1994
• The John Marshall Law School, JD 1984, LLM 1991

Member:

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago

Ms. McKinley has practiced law since 2001. She represents clients in litigation and in filing and prosecuting United States and foreign patent and trademark applications. She is a shareholder of the firm.

Before joining the firm in 2004, she served a two-year stint as Attorney-Law Clerk for an Iowa Supreme Court justice.

Ms. McKinley counsels clients in IP transfer and licensing. Her technical background is in biology and chemistry; her practice also includes the mechanical arts.

Ms. McKinley is licensed in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, various federal courts and the United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Education:

• BA (Biology), 1998, St. Mary’s University of Minnesota
• Doctor of Laws, 2001, University of Wisconsin

Member:

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Wisconsin Intellectual Property Law Association

Ms. Kirby has practiced law since 2004 and is experienced in United States and foreign patent and trademark prosecution, with particular involvement in disputed trademark matters and international protection of marks. She is a shareholder of the firm.

Ms. Kirby is experienced in trademark litigation in the courts and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and assists in patent litigation. Her patent experience has been in a wide variety of fields including the mechanical and chemical arts for both United States and international patent filings and prosecution matters.

Ms. Kirby is licensed in Wisconsin, various federal courts, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Patent & Trademark Office.

Education:

• BA (Biology with Chemistry emphasis), 2001, St. Norbert College
• Doctor of Laws, 2004, Valparaiso University School of Law

Member:

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Wisconsin Intellectual Property Law Association
• International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property
• American Chemical Society

Mr. Jansson serves key roles in the firm’s active litigation practice. He has solid experience in strategic planning and advocacy in patent and other IP litigation, including the complex legal, factual and discovery-related issues often arising in such litigation. He is a shareholder of the firm.

He joined the firm after a decade of extensive international experience as a journalist, covering business and political affairs in Central and Eastern Europe, including as a correspondent for Financial Times and Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Mr. Jansson is licensed to practice in Wisconsin, related federal courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has some fluency in a number of European languages as well as Mandarin Chinese.

Education:

• BA (Political Science), 1996, Swarthmore College
• MS (Journalism), 1997, Columbia University
• Doctor of Laws, with honors, 2012, Marquette University

Member:

• American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Wisconsin Intellectual Property Law Association

Dr. Jansson, the firm’s scientific advisor, provides expertise in patent matters involving a variety of technologies and related litigation. He has extensive experience in industry, academia and government in high-technology, research, new product development, engineering and entrepreneurship. He has served as an expert witness in patent and other litigation. He is not an attorney.

He served as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was Director of the MIT Innovation Center. He was founder and Director of the Institute for Innovation and Design in Engineering at Texas A&M University.

His publications include a textbook, Innovative Conceptual Design, published by Cambridge University Press. The book presents the methodological approach to invention that Dr. Jansson developed during his academic career.

Education:

• BS (Aeronautics & Astronautics), 1968, MIT
• MS (Aeronautics & Astronautics), 1970, MIT
• ScD (Instrumentation and Automatic Control), 1973, MIT

Ms. Haase, office manager and patent paralegal for the firm, earlier served as legal assistant beginning in 2003. She holds a BS (Business Management) from University of Wisconsin – Parkside.

Ms. Gardner is the firm’s receptionist and assists in maintaining firm records. She holds a BA (Intercultural Studies) from Crown College.

Benjamin Keller is our senior litigation paralegal. Mr. Keller is involved in legal and records research, vendor management, preparation and filing of pleadings, litigation docketing and record-keeping and computer technical support. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin system and a post-baccalaureate certificate from the ABA-certified paralegal program at MATC in Milwaukee, where he was President of the Paralegal Society.

Ms. Crawford is our lead trademark paralegal involved in all aspects of domestic and international trademark prosecution including legal research, trademark clearance searches, infringement matters, and preparation and submission of various government filings. She holds an associate’s degree in Paralegal Studies as well as a BS (Business Administration) from Purdue University Global.

Ms. Binion has over a decade of experience in professional administration and assists in financial record-keeping and IP maintenance matters. She holds a BA (Psychology) from Miami University (Ohio) and paralegal certification from Carthage College.