Patrick G. Burns, Class of 1978

Founder of the IP boutique law firm Greer, Burns & Crain

An accomplished intellectual property attorney, Patrick Burns is a founding shareholder at Greer, Burns & Crain in Chicago. His practice today emphasizes patent prosecution and opinions, but over the course of his career he has been involved in litigation involving a variety of intellectual property disputes in the Federal Circuit, Federal District Courts and the International Trade Commission. He is a contributing author of ‘DESIGNING AROUND’ VALID U.S. PATENTS AND ELECTRONICS & COMPUTER PATENT & COPYRIGHT PRACTICE and is a frequent speaker on intellectual property topics around the country.  Burns is active in Chicago’s intellectual property legal community and is a past President of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago; has served on its Board of Managers, and was Chairman of its Computer Technology Committee. He is also a past Chairman of the Patent, Trademark and Copyright Committee of the Chicago Bar Association and serves on the Advisory Board of BNA’s Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal.

Burns has been named to the Leading Lawyer’s Network by the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and named a Super Lawyer by Law & Politics Magazine. He also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Chicago-Kent IP Law Society in 2009.