Jake is an intellectual property (IP) attorney focused on dispute resolution and helping clients protect and defend their IP assets. Jake assists clients with IP disputes in federal courts, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, and in private arbitrations. His experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications, as well as counseling clients on trademark, copyright, and trade secret matters, provides a deep knowledge of what it takes to successfully procure and protect what may be a business’s most valuable assets—their intellectual property.
Jake represents a variety of industries that span diverse technologies, especially the home furnishings/furniture, software, apparel, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and snack food industries. Jake is part of the firm’s team dedicated to the home furnishings industry and has assisted clients in that sector, and others, with IP strategies, defense, and protection.
Jake served as an adjunct professor at Wake Forest University, frequently assists with law clinic issues, and has given multiple presentations on subjects ranging from design patents to Supreme Court rulings affecting trademark protection strategies.
Presentations and Publications
- Orange Book Listing of Patents Under the Hatch Waxman Act, St. Louis U.L. Rev., Vol. 47, No. 4, Summer 2003
- Festo and the Complete Bar - What's Left of the Doctrine of Equivalents? St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev., Vol. XX, No. 2, p. 281, 2001
- State Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, The United States Trademark Association, Release #26, June 2001, Contributing Author
- Presentations
- E-Discovery: Rule 26(f) Conference and Rule Order - What Should It Contain Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC CLE, September, 2008
- It's a Hard Knock Life: The Perils of Design Knockoffs Home Furnishings Business Webinar, July, 2008 (co-author with Jack B. Hicks)
- Combating Counterfeits-Civil Enforcement Mechanisms, Wake Forest University School of Law, Intellectual Property Law Journal Symposium, February, 2008
Professional Activities
- International Trademark Association
- Indigenous Rights Committee
- 2024 Annual Meeting Project Team
- Adjunct Professor, Wake Forest School of Law
Honors & Awards
- Named to World Trademark Review 1000 – The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, 2022 – Present
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings) in the fields of Copyright Law, Litigation – Intellectual Property, Litigation – Patent, Trademark Law, 2016 – Present
- Received the 2018 Best Lawyers™ Copyright "Lawyer of the Year" award in Greensboro, North Carolina
- Received the 2019 Best Lawyers™ Litigation – Intellectual Property "Lawyer of the Year" award in Greensboro, North Carolina
- North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society, 2023
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Successfully defeated a motion for preliminary injunction in a trademark dispute for regional banks.
- Successfully obtained a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction for a major food producer in a trademark and breach of contract case.
- Successfully obtain summary judgment of laches in a patent infringement case.
- Successfully argued an appeal before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.
- Successfully obtained a trial victory in a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board opposition proceeding.