Roger M. Masson is an engineer and lawyer who is passionate about innovation and guiding companies, large and small, through regulatory mazes so they can innovate and thrive. He focuses his practice in intellectual property and craft brewery and distillery law.
Mr. Masson handles patent, trade secret and trademark matters, including arbitration, litigation, opinion and prosecution work. Patent Prosecution: Mr. Masson has written and successfully prosecuted patent applications — in the United States, China, Europe and Japan — relating to dispensing, food and chemical processing, food products, night vision, ophthalmic solutions, and restaurant equipment.
Intellectual Property Dispute Resolution: Mr. Masson represents clients in patent litigation and arbitration, trade secret litigation, and trademark litigation concerning contact lenses, golf clubs, insurance, night vision equipment, specialty chemicals and telephony.
Intellectual Property Opinions: Mr. Masson advises clients about artificial intelligence, fine chemicals, food products, nutraceuticals and restaurant equipment.
Even after 20 years of home brewing and tasting craft beers, Mr. Masson is still excited about craft brewing because craft brewers are still creating, experimenting and taking risks with their beers.
He and his colleagues in the firm can assist breweries and distilleries with all their legal needs, including: founding a business, licensing, branding, distributing, contracting, advertising and managing employees.
Prior to joining Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Mr. Masson was an associate at an intellectual property boutique firm in Chicago. Before beginning his legal career, Mr. Masson was a licensed professional engineer and held environmental and chemical engineering positions at two engineering firms.
In those roles, he managed cleanup at a state Superfund site, designed several cleanup systems, and obtained approval for production of two new chemicals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
During his undergraduate studies Mr. Masson gained technical engineering experience through two co-op programs with one of the largest manufacturers in the United States and one of the world’s largest petroleum companies.
Representative Matters :
- As second chair, achieved a multimillion dollar award for breach of a patent license relating to optics in a complex International Chamber of Commerce arbitration seated in London between an American licensor client and a French defense contractor.
- Successfully defended a home brew store against a trademark owner’s assertions of infringement in two cease-and-desist letters.
- Performed environmental due diligence for purchase of an American chemical company by a European purchaser and provided guidance to purchaser for obtaining approval from Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.
- Successfully prosecuted patents in the United States and in the European Patent Office (EPO) for a solo inventor obtaining broad coverage in the material sciences. In the EPO, successfully overcame a unity of invention rejection allowing broad coverage to be achieved in a single patent.
- Successfully drafted and prosecuted patents for a user interface for restaurant equipment for a Fortune 150 company in the United States, Australia, Canada, China and Japan.
Education :
- J.D., DePaul University College of Law, 2004
- B.S., Chemical Engineering, Northwestern University, 1991
Admissions :
- Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
- U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
Cost
Rate : $$$