Christopher M. Scherer

Meet Chris

Chris is a registered patent attorney and shareholder in Godfrey & Kahn’s Intellectual Property (IP) practice.

Chris has a strong technical background and broad IP experience. He earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and began his career in Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. There, he gained experience prosecuting patents in chip fabrication, MEMS devices, video compression technology, electrical and electronic circuits and systems, computer software, and medical devices and monitoring systems. After returning to the Midwest in 2004, Chris began representing universities, as well as clients abroad through his extensive network of foreign law firms.

Today, his practice focuses on patent and trademark prosecution, IP portfolio management, strategic counseling, trademark opposition and cancellation practice, and IP due diligence. Chris has prosecuted and managed U.S. and international patent applications in technologies including software, artificial intelligence (AI), electronics, medical devices, optical systems, and mechanical inventions. He also manages and advises on global trademark and design patent portfolios. Chris has also provided fractional in-house corporate counsel services to his clients.

Chris is an internationally recognized IP attorney, listed in the IAM1000 global patent rankings, the WTR1000 global trademark rankings, as well as in the global patent and trademark listings for IP STARS. 

He is an active member of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI), which is dedicated to the global development, improvement and harmonization of intellectual property. He serves on AIPPI’s international Programme Committee and is a member of the AIPPI-US Steering Committee. Through AIPPI, he has built an overseas client base through his foreign IP counsel network, who also act as global partners to provide IP services in foreign jurisdictions for Godfrey & Kahn’s domestic IP clients.

Chris is also an active member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), which strives to move discoveries from university research laboratories to commercial partners capable of transforming those inventions into beneficial products and services. Chris regularly attends AUTM conferences to ensure that he is current on the issues affecting his university clients throughout the United States. 

Chris earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Marquette University, and his J.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law.