Reid Huefner is Counsel Attorney at the firm and has been practicing law since 2006.  His practices areas include Intellectual Property Litigation, Intellectual Property Transactions, Intellectual Property Counseling and Opinions, Mergers and Acquisitions, Privacy and Technology Transactions, and Entrepreneurial.

In addition to providing litigation services to clients in a host of venues—including federal and state district and appellate court, the ITC, the Court of International Trade, the USPTO and PTAB, and U.S. Customs—Reid has also provided intellectual property support in a variety of transactional contexts, such as software licensing, research and development and joint venture agreements, outsourcing, mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcy. Reid has both depth and breadth of experience counseling clients on defending and protecting their patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark interests in both litigation and transaction contexts.

Having worked as an engineer prior to attending law school and having received an MBA in finance, with an emphasis in venture capital and private equity, Reid brings a unique business-centric philosophy to his matters and always seeks to manage his clients’ matters with an eye to the general business context in which the clients’ legal needs have arisen. He seeks creative solutions to difficult problems and seeks to pursue multiple winning strategies simultaneously to maximize his clients’ likelihood of success.

Practice Areas

Reid works with clients, large and small, on patent, trade secret, copyright, trademark, and transactional matters work for industry-leading clients across a host of technological areas including the following:

• ANDA/Hatch-Waxman
• Automotive
• Chemical and oil
• Computer software and hardware
• Consumer products
• Dental products, both chemical and mechanical
• Gaming systems
• HVAC equipment
• Mechanical devices
• Medical devices and products
• Pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals
• Radio frequency identification (RFID)
• Silicon ingot manufacturing
• Telecommunications and wireless

Reid has also first chaired many pro bono cases, which have focused primarily on residential real estate disputes, artists involved in intellectual property disputes, and violations of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act.

Current and former clients include AGS, Aker BioMarine, Auriga, Baxter Healthcare, Baxter International, BP, Cisco, Colgate-Palmolive, Dow Chemical, Energy Future Holdings, General Motors, Indorama, Intel, Kapsch, Keystone Automotive, LKQ Corp., Loren Cook, Massarelli’s, Mark IV, Motorola, Nest Labs (now Google), Netgear, Nutraceutical, OtterBox, The Owings Gallery, Pfizer, Ranir, Realviews Photography (Cesar Russ), Restorsea, Sandoz, Sun Microsystems (now Oracle), Swagway, U.S. Auto Parts (now Carparts.com), WARN Industries, Wowza, Zoetis, various Venture Capital and Private Equity funds and their portfolio companies.

As a litigator, Reid has handled many high-stakes patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, restrictive covenant, unfair competition, false advertising, and antitrust matters.  Some of those matters include:

• a litigation between two start-up companies having multiple patents on competing running accessory technologies where, as lead counsel for the defendant, he successfully settled the case and negotiated a settlement that resulted in a favorable U.S. royalty license;
• part of a team of attorneys that secured the en banc review, at the Federal Circuit, of the LKQ v. GM case regarding the applicability of the Supreme Court’s KSR obviousness standard to design patents;
• an offensive patent infringement case for the plaintiff involving four patents relating to automatic vehicle identification systems and open-road tolling that successfully preserved the client’s business position, valued in the billions;
• a multi-patent defensive matter for a medical product’s company where Irwin IP defeated a Fortune 50 company’s effort to enjoin sales of its client’s medical product for allegedly infringing patents that had survived numerous prior invalidity challenges and that were the foundation for a $1 billion/year market;
• an extensive, expedited evidentiary hearing, wherein Irwin IP obtained a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction precluding Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) from imposing a bonding requirement against an importer that would have caused the importer to cease operations and cost hundreds of employees their jobs;
• an offensive matter against CBP wherein Irwin IP obtained a rare order requiring CBP to immediately move forward with seizure actions it had been intentionally delaying;
• litigation brought seeking a declaratory judgment against trademark infringement and further asserting breach of contract, RICO, and antitrust claims; successfully defended a motion to dismiss, resulting in a report and recommendation by the Magistrate Judge that recommended denying the motion to dismiss in its entirety;
• various matters for a hoverboard manufacturer involving patent and trademark infringement, false certification mark, monopolization, and inequitable conduct claims before District Court and the Int’l Trade Commission and counselled the client regarding clearance/freedom to operate, product development, certification requirements, and settlement;
• two patent infringement actions representing a market-leading private label dental supply manufacturer and related counselled with the client regarding clearance/freedom to operate, product development, and licensing;
• a litigation between an entrepreneur and his former business partner regarding a restrictive covenant and valuation of stock options;
• a patent litigation between two major pharmaceutical companies regarding animal treatment products, representing the defendants, including defeating early motions for a temporary restraining order that sought to block the client’s imminent launch of a new product;
• various plaintiff-side ANDA litigations;
• a complex, multidistrict litigation for a major auto manufacturer related to various recalls;
• a bankruptcy proceeding for one of the largest generator, distributor, and certified retail providers of electricity and 70 of its affiliates in their Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court;
• a six-patent litigation matter where a startup was defending its “smart” home CO/smoke alarm product from an industry leader wherein a preliminary injunction was defeated;
• a patent infringement case involving multiple patents relating to active and passive polymer barrier technologies;
• a case defending against patent infringement and trade secret misappropriation allegations involving technologies relating to methods of making polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins and polyesters;
• a consolidated multi-district litigation representing three major wireless product manufacturers, as well as scores of their customers, covering nearly two dozen patents relating to allegations of infringement based upon implementation of the 802.11 wireless standard; the case settled shortly after a favorable FRAND licensing rate ruling.
• a patent infringement case representing defendant against infringement allegations relating to two patents covering CDMA and 802.11 wireless communications standards;
• a state court breach of contract case, representing a major chemical company plaintiff, relating to a joint development effort in liquid redox chemistry; the case settled on favorable terms shortly before trial;
• a patent infringement case involving defense against alleged infringement of two patents relating to 802.11 wireless communications standards;
• a nine-patent offensive actions seeking to protect our medical device client’s business against the launch of a competing product for peritoneal dialysis;
• a patent infringement case defending against claims of infringement of mixed flow and in-line centrifugal fan technologies;
• a patent infringement case defending our client against allegations involving processor-related architecture and software technologies.
• a trade secret and patent case involving therapeutic active ingredients in dentifrice and other oral compositions;
• an offensive matter brought against a competitor for their improper scraping of the client’s website data culminating in expedited injunctive relief and recovery of fees associated with bringing the action;
• an action defending auction purchasers of a fine art painting against claims of replevin, detinue, etc., based upon the assertion that the painting was stolen; the case settled favorably;
• a pro bono case where, as lead counsel, our client successfully was able to shut down the website of a trademark-infringing competitor as well as many associated social media accounts (Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, Youtube);
• a pro bono case where, as lead counsel, an adverse judgment against the client’s efforts to obtain records under Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was successfully appealed;
• a pro bono case where, as lead counsel, the defendant non-profit client successfully defeated allegations of breach of contract and quantum meruit damages;
• a pro bono case where family members of a famous designer successfully rebuffed allegations of conversion and replevin;
• a pro bono case where defendants overcame allegations of replevin and conversion and accounting; the case settled on terms that included the assignment of all intellectual property rights to defendants;
• a pro bono appeal on behalf of a refugee before the 11th Circuit to obtain a rehearing en banc regarding procedural and substantive errors by Immigration Court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals;
• Numerous pro bono representations through the Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing: Represented, to assist LCBH clients in disputes against their landlords; and
• Numerous pro bono representations through the Lawyers for the Creative Arts assisting individuals with their business’s trademark prosecution needs.

Furthermore, Reid has been counsel in over a dozen Patent Office review proceedings, including successfully petitioning the PTAB to institute an IPR on a patent touted as the foundation for a product line generating over a billion dollars per year and that had previously withstood numerous other validity challenges before the Patent Office and several federal court litigations.

Finally, Reid also works with clients to strengthen their intellectual property portfolios, including through improving protection of key products and technologies, broadening existing intellectual property portfolios, and licensing or purchasing third party intellectual property.  Reid has handled myriad transactional and counselling projects, including supporting the purchase and sale of companies, negotiating terms for strategic alliance and supplier/developer relationships, and counselling companies regarding freedom to operate.  Some of those matters include:

• representing acquiring corporations in connection with the potential acquisition of intellectual property relating to automotive, medical device, pharmaceutical composition, security, and telemetry technologies;
• a freedom to operate review and advising a prospective investor on the competitive patent landscape and associated risk exposure of a potential portfolio company specializing in research laboratory equipment and services;
• advising a prospective investor on the intellectual property position of a potential biotechnology portfolio company specializing in EPO in relation to its chief competitor in the marketplace;
• representing the acquiring private equity entity in connection with its acquisition of an equity interest and voting control in the international leading manufacturer and developer of professional and consumer tooth whitening products and dental devices;
• representing the acquiring private equity entity in connection with its purchase of a regional physical therapy business and its business name and trademarks;
• handling all the intellectual property aspects of the spin-off of an international printer toner cartridge subsidiary business from its parent company;
• representing the acquiring private equity entity in connection with its acquisition of a company that provides software solutions with multi-carrier, multi-line consolidated insurance billing capabilities; and
• representing the acquiring private equity entity in connection with its acquisition of a company that provides software solutions that automate the sales, service, and processing of health insurance and group benefits.

Professional Affiliations, Activities, and Honors

Reid belongs to the Chicago Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, and currently serves as one of its board members, having previously served as its president.  He is also member of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago (IPLAC) and previously served as a chair of its U.S. Patents Committee.

Reid has also made providing pro bono legal assistance to client a priority in his practice, assisting many clients through the Lawyers for the Creative Arts and the Lawyers Committee for Better Housing; the latter honoring him as its volunteer of the year in 2009.

Prior to joining Miller Johnson (formerly Irwin IP) as a Senior Counsel, Reid was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis (2013–2006), a Public Interest Law Initiative Fellow with the Citizen Advocacy Center in Elmhurst, IL (2007), and, during law school, a law clerk at Workman Nydegger and an intern in the chambers of the Honorable Judge Randall Rader of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2005) and the chambers of the Honorable Judge Marian Blank Horn of the United Stated Court of Federal Claims (2004).  Prior to law school, Reid worked as a chemical engineer for Abbott Laboratories.

Articles and Presentations

Reid is a frequent speaker on a variety of intellectual property topics.  Past speaking engagements include the following:

• Illinois APEX Accelerator and CMAA Small Business Expo, Intellectual Property Legal Workshop (May 2025)
• Spring Entrepreneurs Workshop, Unlock Your Innovation: An Introduction to Intellectual Property (April 2025)
• mHUB, Unlock Your Innovation: An Introduction to Intellectual Property (April 2025)
• Illinois Small Business Development Center at the Rogers Park Business Alliance, What Every Small Business Owner Should Know About Intellectual Property (March 2025)
• South Bend, Indiana Entrepreneurship and Adversity Program (Gladys Blake Muhammad Community Bootcamp for Entrepreneurs), Protecting Yourself: What You Need to Know about Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks, and Trade Secrets in Your Small Business (January 2025)
• DuPage County Bar Association, 2024 Patent Landscape — Year in Review (January 2025)
• Progresando, panel discussion regarding IP issues affecting members of the Rogers Park Business Alliance’s Spanish-speaking entrepreneurial training program (November 2024)
• People of Play Gaming Convention, IP Disputes for Game and Toy Makers (November 2024)
• Rogers Park Business Alliance, Form Idea to Market: Unlocking the Value of Your Intellectual Property (October 2024)
• CBA, Patent Law Update: Legislation and Cases from the Past Year (October 2021)
• Kirkland & Ellis, Kirkland Institute of Trial Advocacy, Instructor (2015)

He has also published articles on various intellectual property law topics, including in The Journal of the DuPage County Bar Association (On-Sale Bar Arguments Fizzle Out at the Federal Circuit, 37 DBCA Brief 20 (March/April 2025)), on JDSupra, and through frequent blog posts.

Education

Reid received his law degree and his MBA in 2006 from Brigham Young University and his undergraduate degrees in 2000 from the University of Utah.

Bar and Court Admissions

Reid is admitted to practice and has managed cases in Illinois state courts, before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the PTAB, and in a host of federal trial venues, including district and appellate courts, the ITC, and the Court of International Trade.