Robert W. Sacoff

Bob has practiced trademark, copyright and unfair competition law and litigation for over 30 years. He has prosecuted and defended cases in courts throughout the country, and in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. He has dealt with myriad e-commerce and social media issues, and has handled scores of UDRP and URS cases, combating fraudulent practices and recovering domain names from cybersquatters. His experience spans diverse consumer and B2B product fields such as food and wine, fashion brands, sporting goods, computer hardware and software, information technology, integrated circuits, agricultural equipment, insurance, banking, publishing, consulting, sports and entertainment ticketing, vehicle rental, automobiles and auto parts.

He has been an author, speaker and bar leader in the intellectual property field for decades, within and outside the United States. He Chaired the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law, which at the time had 20,000 members and 90 committees, and co-authored an ABA amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court in the Victoria’s Secret trademark dilution case. He served on the Boards of Directors of INTA, the International Trademark Association, and AIPLA, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and helped formulate the Trademark Office intent-to-use rules implementing the 1989 Lanham Act revisions. He testified before Congress on the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 and the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006. He served on the Trademark Public Advisory Committee for many years as a private sector advisor to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.

Bob has also been active in the field of foreign and international trademark law, representing clients in projects ranging from clearance, registration, enforcement and licensing to oppositions, gray market goods, and infringement actions. Bob served as a private sector advisor to the U.S. Delegation to the Trademark Law Treaty Diplomatic Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. He has also been an active member of AIPPI, the Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle. AIPPI is a politically neutral professional association founded in 1897. It has over 9,000 members in more than 100 countries, and is devoted to developing and improving intellectual property laws around the world. At its 2016 Congress in Milan, Italy, AIPPI presented Bob with its Award of Merit, which recognizes outstanding contributions to AIPPI’s work. Bob is one of only eight American lawyers to have received this Award since its creation in 1997.

Bob has degrees from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Northwestern University Law Review, and the University of Notre Dame. He is regularly recognized in professional reviews such as World Trademark Review, Legal 500, International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers, Marquis Who’s Who in America, Martindale-Hubbell, Illinois Super Lawyers, International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers, and Leading Lawyers. He lives in Glenview, Illinois with his wife Mary, and in his spare time enjoys international travel and the racquet sports, including squash and court tennis, the medieval predecessor of modern lawn tennis.