150
FIRM REPUTATION
YEARS OF
4
FORMER CORPORATE
PATENT CONSELS
100%
IP PRACTICE
DEDICATED
GLOBAL
PORTFOLIO
REACH
WHO ARE WE
Bottom-line Brainpower for Your Intellectual Property
Wood Phillips is a Chicago-based IP boutique with a distinctive edge: attorneys who have sat on the client side of the table. Four of our lawyers served as Patent and Trademark Counsel at major corporations — so we approach every engagement through a business lens, not just a legal one.
We see your IP portfolio as an asset to be built, managed, and monetized — not just a collection of filings. Whether you need one patent or a global trademark strategy, we bring the experience and efficiency to deliver results.
OUR APPROACH
"Even a day without informed decisions on IP assets and risks can mean the difference between gain and loss — perhaps a substantial one."
01
Set IP Objectives aligned with business strategy
Audit & analyze your existing portfolio
Refine — retain value, eliminate waste
Exploit — license, commercialize, enforce
Assess results and continuously improve
OUR APPROACH
"Even a day without informed decisions on IP assets and risks can mean the difference between gain and loss — perhaps a substantial one."
01
Set IP Objectives aligned with business strategy
Audit & analyze your existing portfolio
Refine — retain value, eliminate waste
Exploit — license, commercialize, enforce
Assess results and continuously improve
OUR APPROACH
"Even a day without informed decisions on IP assets and risks can mean the difference between gain and loss — perhaps a substantial one."
01
02
Set IP Objectives aligned with business strategy
03
Audit & analyze your existing portfolio
04
Refine — retain value, eliminate waste
Assess results and continuously improve
Exploit — license, commercialize, enforce
05
PRACTICE AREAS
Application drafting and prosecution before the USPTO and international offices. We write claims that are broad, defensible, and commercially valuable.
Patent Prosecution
Audit, optimize, and monetize your portfolio. We apply portfolio theory principles to maximize value and minimize cost across your IP estate.
Portfolio Strategy
WHAT WE DO
Clearance, registration, enforcement, and global portfolio management. We build brands that are strong, distinctive, and protected worldwide.
Trademark & Brand
Specialized prosecution and strategy for pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device patents requiring deep scientific expertise.
Life Sciences & Biotech
Registration, licensing, and enforcement for creative and technical works — from software code to product design and beyond.
Copyright
Patent protection for software, algorithms, electrical systems, and computer-implemented inventions across all technology platforms.
Software & Electronics
IP identification, valuation, and risk assessment for mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, and licensing transactions.
M&A Due Diligence
Aggressive enforcement and defense of patent, trademark, and copyright rights in federal courts and the ITC.
IP Litigation
Featured Insights
$1,500 Per Call: The FCC Ruling That Made an AI Voice Its Own TCPA Trigger
In January 2024, New Hampshire voters answered the phone and heard President Biden tell them to skip the primary. It wasn't the President — it was an AI-cloned voice. Within weeks, that call reshaped how every business using synthetic speech has to think about the telephone.
The response was the FCC's February 8, 2024 Declaratory Ruling (CG Docket No. 23-362, FCC 24-17), adopted unanimously and effective immediately. The headline was that AI robocalls are now "illegal".
Peloton's $20.5 Million NEC Patent Verdict: The Freedom-to-Operate Lesson Hiding in a Video Player
On July 31, 2026, a Delaware federal jury ordered Peloton to pay NEC $20.5 million for patent infringement. The headline is the number. The lesson is where the infringement came from: not some exotic in-house invention, but two of the most common video players in software — Google's ExoPlayer/Media3 and Apple's AVPlayer. For any company that builds products on off-the-shelf components, that detail is the story.
The $1.5 Billion Distinction: Why Anthropic Settled the Books It Downloaded, Not the Models It Trained
Most copyright headlines this week reported the same number: $1.5 billion, the largest copyright class action settlement on record. The number is real, and it is worth pausing on. But the number is not the lesson.
On Monday, July 20, 2026, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted final approval to the class settlement in *Bartz v. Anthropic*, resolving claims covering 482,460 books and paying participating authors and publishers roughly $3,000 per work. The case began in 2024,
Knowledge Center
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The Inside Advantage
We combine the depth of a large IP practice with the responsiveness and cost-efficiency only a focused boutique can provide.
Why Wood Phillips
4
CORPORATE COUNSELS
Four attorneys who served as Patent & Trademark Counsel at major corporations — they know what clients actually need.
Portfolio Theory
We manage portfolios as financial assets — maximizing return, minimizing exposure, and tracking results.
100%
IP Only
Intellectual property is our entire practice. Every attorney. Every day. Every matter.
Lean & Fast
Small enough to respond in hours, experienced enough for the most complex matters — without big-firm overhead.
Jennifer Gordon
Attorney
Patent · Litigation
Gabriella Acker
Attorney
Patent · Trademark
Cheryl L. Becker
Life Sciences
Attorney
Jeffrey L. Clark
Patent · Litigation
Attorney
Stephen D. Geimer
Patent · Litigation
Attorney
Thomas F. Ging
Mechanical · Patent
Attorney