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CHICAGO – Four standout attorneys at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione have been included in the Patents 2011 edition of Who’s Who Legal: The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers. The attorneys are Roy E. Hofer, Gary M. Ropski, who is currently the firm's president, William H. Frankel and Raymond W. Green.

Since 1996, Who's Who Legal, published by Law Business Research, has identified the foremost legal practitioners in 31 areas of business law. Nominees must receive at least four independent nominations from clients and peers to be included in Who’s Who Legal. The Patents 2011 edition features 10,500 attorneys.

Roy Hofer has more than 45 years of experience in litigating patent, trade secret, trade dress and related antitrust and contract matters. Still active in district court cases, Mr. Hofer now devotes most of his time to consulting on federal appeal cases, serving as a mediator, arbitrator or special master, and rendering opinions on patent validity, infringement and litigation issues. Mr. Hofer is also a member of the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County, a 17-member group formed in 2010 to evaluate and provide performance improvement plans to judges facing re-election in Cook County.

Gary Ropski is a trial lawyer with 35 years of experience in intellectual property. He has litigated in every federal judicial circuit in the United States and in almost all of the top ten districts for patent litigation. Mr. Ropski has participated in more than 100 IP lawsuits, and has received accolades for how he presents and rebuts claims in litigation, making complex topics easily understandable by a jury or judge. Mr. Ropski also taught patent and copyright law for 17 years at the Northwestern University School of Law.

William H. Frankel has more than 30 years of IP experience focused on patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and unfair competition litigation in jury and non-jury cases. Mr. Frankel has represented multinational clients in federal courts, before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, before the International Trade Commission and in alternative dispute resolution forums in connection with injunction, trial, contempt and appellate proceedings. He also has been asked by disputing parties to mediate IP matters. In addition, Mr. Frankel has taught patent law as an adjunct professor at DePaul University, and has written and presented on a number of IP topics around the world. Mr. Frankel is presently the Chair of Brinks’ Copyright Group.

Raymond Green has 45 years of IP experience and has been with the Firm since 1982. He is the former Chair of the firm’s Interference Practice Group. Mr. Green focuses his practice on patent prosecution, including patent interferences and re-examinations. He has had primary responsibility for approximately 40 interferences, and several patents he has written and prosecuted have been precedent-setting cases in interference practice. Mr. Green is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, the American Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association and the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago.

Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione is one of the largest intellectual property law firms in the United States and serves the intellectual property needs of clients around the world. Brinks has 150 attorneys, scientific advisors and patent agents who specialize in intellectual property litigation and all aspects of patent, trademark and copyright law. The firm also advises on issues relating to intellectual asset management, trade secret, unfair competition, and technology and licensing agreements. Brinks routinely handles assignments for companies in the electrical, chemical, and mechanical engineering sectors; the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and nanotechnology industries; and for companies whose work relates to Internet and computer technology law. The firm’s trademark practice works on behalf of clients who deal in a wide variety of products and services. Brinks is based in Chicago and has offices in Ann Arbor, Mich., Indianapolis, Ind., Raleigh, N.C., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Washington, DC. More information is available at www.usebrinks.com.