CHICAGO – Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to announce that Robert B. Breisblatt has joined the firm’s Chicago office as a partner in its Intellectual Property Practice. Mr. Breisblatt joins Katten from the Chicago intellectual property firm of Welsh & Katz, Ltd., where he was a principal. He is the third lateral partner to join Katten’s Intellectual Property Practice in 2008, following the additions of Colbern Stuart in the Los Angeles office in mid-March and Peter Zura in the Chicago office in February.

An experienced trial attorney with extensive federal jury trial and appellate experience, Mr. Breisblatt has tried numerous intellectual property matters including patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright cases. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney, he has obtained two jury verdicts in excess of five million dollars for clients, and has argued a number of appeals in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Breisblatt also has extensive experience in patent litigation matters involving the pharmaceutical industry. He was the lead trial attorney and appellate attorney for Apotex Inc. in two precedential cases tried in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2007, Pfizer, Inc. v. Apotex Inc. and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. v. Apotex Inc. In the Daiichi case he successfully turned the plaintiff, Daiichi, into a defendant, and collected five million dollars from Daiichi for his client. He has also worked with copier manufacturers, medical device companies, computer software companies and many others on their litigation needs.

“We have admired Bob as one of the nation’s leading patent trial lawyers in the country for many years,” said Floyd A. Mandell, national co-chair of Katten’s Intellectual Property Practice. “His experience and insight will be valuable resources for our clients, and we are proud to add him to our growing intellectual property litigation practice.”

Early in his career, Mr. Breisblatt served as a Lieutenant in the United States Army and then worked for the Florida Attorney General and the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now the Department of Health and Human Services). He has taught civil and criminal trial advocacy courses at the United States Attorney General's Advocacy Institute and also received a commendation from the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a special achievement award from the Attorney General of the United States.

Mr. Breisblatt earned his B.A. from Florida State University and his J.D. from the Duke University School of Law.

Katten’s national Intellectual Property Practice provides a complete range of services for domestic and international companies seeking to protect and exploit their intellectual property. Patents, trademarks, business names, copyrights, proprietary technology and trade secrets are among a company’s most valuable assets, and therefore, in addition to securing patents, trademarks and copyrights and instituting programs to prevent the loss of trade secrets, the firm assists clients in leveraging intellectual property rights through licensing, as well as joint venture and technology transfer agreements. The practice’s seasoned litigation attorneys enforce and protect their clients’ patent, trademark and copyright rights in jurisdictions across the United States and abroad, and also counsel clients concerning the validity and valuation of intellectual property when faced with potential acquisition, threat of infringement claims or infringement by other parties.