⚖️ We are a boutique law firm advising clients in navigating the path from invention or business idea through business success to create and secure generational wealth for their families. Dr. Brent Whitlock, Esq. founded Brent Whitlock Law, LLC to meet the legal needs of innovators and businesses as a trusted advisor in a bespoke and collaborative manner, based on his extensive academic, scientif
ic, engineering, entrepreneurial, business, and legal experience. Dr. Whitlock combines his entrepreneurial and technical backgrounds with fifteen years of experience in law — first as a patent agent and then as an attorney — to help his clients protect their intellectual property, their businesses, and their families. As a Family Business Lawyer™, Dr. Whitlock is a trusted advisor to his clients for their business affairs as well as their personal affairs. Dr. Whitlock also serves business clients in the role of fractional Chief Legal Officer and/or fractional Chief Intellectual Property Counsel. Dr. Whitlock also helps his clients establish and maintain estate plans, including wills and trusts, to be sure their families are well-cared for regardless of the uncertainties of life. Dr. Whitlock also represents his clients for the successful closings on the sale or purchase of their residential real estate. Dr. Whitlock co-counsels with attorneys having specific expertise and licensed in specific jurisdictions as appropriate for his clients' diverse matters. As his clients' Family Business Lawyer, Dr. Whitlock is their first call when seeking legal counsel in whatever matters may arise. Our strategic legal services include the following:
✔︎ Patents
✔︎ Trademarks
✔︎ Copyrights
✔︎ Trade secrets
✔︎ Strategies
✔︎ Business entity formation and maintenance
✔︎ Business contracts and agreements
✔︎ Business deals
✔︎ Licensing
✔︎ Due diligence for investing, lending, entering new markets, developing new products, M&A's, etc.
✔︎ Fundraising, financing, and investment counseling
✔︎ Succession planning
✔︎ Real estate transactions
✔︎ Real estate title clearance, insurance, and closings
✔︎ Estate planning
✔︎ Wills
✔︎ Trusts
✔︎ Asset protection
✔︎ Litigation
DR. BRENT WHITLOCK, ESQ.'S BIO:
Dr. Whitlock combines his entrepreneurial business and technical backgrounds with over fifteen years experience in law — first as a patent agent and then as an attorney — to help clients succeed. He is a trusted advisor to his clients to guide them in securing and protecting their ideas, inventions, creatives, brands, wealth and legacy. He helps his clients protect their inventions, brands, creative expression, and “secret sauce” through patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. He also helps his clients enforce their intellectual property against infringers and defend against claims of infringement. By searching and analyzing the IP landscape for his clients, he counsels them on strategies to maximize the breadth of their IP while avoiding others’ IP. In addition, he helps his clients establish and maintain business entities to monetize their IP as well as protect their assets and establish their legacies. Admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since 2007, Dr. Whitlock has extensive experience preparing, filing, and prosecuting patent applications. He also has experience with international and foreign patent applications, post-grant proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeals Board, and patent litigation. He has prosecuted patents in a wide range of technical areas including computer software and hardware, communication systems, wireless networks, augmented reality/virtual reality, blockchain technology, cryptography, signal processing, audio and video coding and transmission, imaging and photographic systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning, machine vision, natural language processing, control systems, electronics, semiconductor fabrication, electronic design automation (EDA), optics and photonics, laser systems, energy, medical devices, robotics, mechanical systems, fluid handling systems, heating/cooling/vapor-compression cycle systems, automotive systems, aerospace systems, financial systems, and business systems. His intellectual property experience also includes securing trademarks to protect brands and copyrights to protect creative expression. These include product/service names, logos, slogans, works of art, literature, and screenplays, for example. Prior to his career in law, Dr. Whitlock was a principal and director of optical systems at startup company RSoft Design Group Inc. (now part of Synopsys Inc.), where he spearheaded the development of RSoft’s award-winning optical communication system simulation tools based on his doctoral research. He also won millions of dollars’ worth of federally funded research contracts on which he served as principal investigator and collaborated with researchers in other organizations. Dr. Whitlock earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow, and his law degree magna cm laude from Chicago-Kent College of Law. He is an award-winning author and international speaker with dozens of publications and professional presentations to his credit. EDUCATION:
o University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• BS, Electrical Engineering, highest honors
• MS, Electrical Engineering, National Science Foundation Fellow
• PhD, Electrical Engineering, National Science Foundation Fellow
o University of California Santa Cruz
• Silicon Valley Executive Business Program, honors graduate
o Illinois Tech Chicago-Kent College of Law
• JD, magna cm laude
• JD Certificate in Intellectual Property Law
PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP ROLES:
o Volunteer Teacher, Patent Practicum class, Illinois Tech Chicago-Kent College of Law
o Advisory Board Member and Volunteer Attorney, Chicago-Kent Patent Hub, Illinois regional administrator of the USPTO Patent Pro Bono Program
o Board of Directors, Affinity Patient Advocacy
o Chicago-Kent Journal of Intellectual Property, Associate Editor
o Industry Standards work included:
• SAE Avionic Systems Division AS-5659 WDM LAN
• Served as Chair, SAE Avionic Systems Division WDM LAN Modeling and Simulation subtask group
• SAE Avionic Systems Division Loss Budget Task Group
• TIA FO-2.2.1 Modal Dependence of Multimode Fiber Bandwidth
• IEEE 802.3aq 10GBASE-LRM
o Technical conference leadership roles included:
• Conference program committee member, SPIE Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices VIII
• Conference session chair, NFOEC 2002 – 2005
o Reviewer for technical journals including:
• Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing: An International Journal
• IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications special issue on computer-aided modeling and simulation of communication systems
• IBM Journal of Research and Development
o Served as Executive Committee Member, IEEE San Francisco Bay Area Nanotechnology Council
o Served as Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, Santa Clara Valley chapter of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society
o Current professional association activities:
• Senior Member, IEEE: Photonics, Circuits and Systems, Computer, and Communication Societies
• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, Illinois State Bar Association
• Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Member, Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
EXEMPLARY AWARDS:
o Santa Clara Valley chapter of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Winner of the 2007 IEEE LEOS Chapter of the Year Award, while Dr. Whitlock served as Chair
o Santa Clara Valley chapter of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, Winner of the 2008 IEEE LEOS Most Innovative Chapter Award, while Dr. Whitlock served as Chair
o RSoft Design Group’s OptSim optical communication system simulation software won the Lightwave OFC/NFOEC 2005 Attendees' Choice Award for the Design Tools category
o Dr. Whitlock, during his doctoral studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, won the following awards:
• Best Student Paper Award, 1995 IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) Annual Meeting
• Engineering Open House Project Award, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for “Robo-Fireman,” 1991
• Caterpillar Engineering Open House Award, College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, for “Robo-Fireman,” 1991
WORLDWIDE LEGAL COLLABORATIONS:
We work with a network of highly skilled and experienced attorneys as co-counsel according to client needs on any particular matter. FUN FACTS:
• Dr. Whitlock is a Producer & Participant featured in "4 Days to Save the World" (TV Show)
• Dr. Whitlock is a background actor on a number of other TV shows
• Dr. Whitlock created and hosted a jazz fusion radio show in college
• Thomas Edison is Dr. Whitlock's academic great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather
• Dr. Whitlock's Erdös number = 4
• Steve “The Woz” Wozniak endorsed Dr. Whitlock's book
BOOKING CONSULTATIONS:
https://calendly.com/brentwhitlock or DM for a FREE consultation
