Jean Ciardullo

Jean-Paul Ciardullo is a partner and intellectual property lawyer at Foley & Lardner LLP, where his primary practice area is intellectual property litigation.

Jean-Paul litigates in all areas of intellectual property – including utility patents, design patents, trademarks, trade dress, copyright, and trade secrets – and also counsels on business torts, contract disputes, and licensing matters related to intellectual property.

Jean-Paul has litigated extensively in the area of consumer product design rights, and has secured numerous summary judgment and trial victories that have helped shape the law of trade dress.

Jean-Paul has assisted clients in a wide range of industries that include industrial manufacturing, E-commerce, medical devices, sporting equipment, semiconductor fabrication, automotive products, satellite radio, and hospitality.

He is a member of the firm’s IP Litigation Practice and Health Care Industry Team.Jean-Paul is also committed to pro bono service, and has helped numerous immigrant refugees obtain asylum in the United States.

Jean-Paul is originally a New Yorker, and prior to joining Foley in Los Angeles, was an intellectual property litigation attorney with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP in New York City.

Representative Experience :

• Secured $6.7 million final judgment for furniture maker Herman Miller, Inc. following jury trial against a company accused of infringing and diluting trade dress rights in famous chair designs
• Won $1.6 million contempt award for client Toyo Tires, disgorging all of accused infringer’s profits following violation of an earlier consent judgment concerning tire design rights
• Secured $0 settlement in defense of software patent litigation by discovering a logical impossibility imbedded within all the plaintiff’s patent claims that rendered them invalid, while the other large corporate defendants failed to identify the defect and continued litigating at significant expense
• Defeated multiple summary judgment motions attacking the validity of the trade dress rights of tire manufacturer Toyo Tires, and furniture maker Herman Miller
• Identified invalidating patent prior art against sports equipment patents by discovering and investigating declassified U.S. military records

Education :

Jean-Paul earned his law degree from Fordham University School of Law (J.D., 2006). He graduated from Princeton University, where he majored in civil engineering with minors in finance and materials science (B.S.E., 2003).

Admissions :

Jean-Paul is admitted to practice in the State of California, the State of New York, before the Ninth, Fifth, and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, and before the United States District Courts for the Central, Northern, and Southern Districts of California, the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Texas, and the Western District of Michigan.