Marcus Sprow is a partner and registered patent attorney with Foley & Lardner LLP. He counsels clients on a wide variety of intellectual property issues, particularly those involving patent and trade secret law. Mr. Sprow has experience in a variety of technical disciplines, and has drafted and prosecuted patent applications relating to batteries, capacitors, integrated circuit design and manufacturing, semiconductor fabrication equipment and technology, material synthesis and characterization, metal coatings, automotive systems and components, power tools, plumbing components, and a broad array of consumer products. He also has engineering work experience in the fields of automotive brake formulation and production and high-temperature metal alloys used in jet turbine engines. Mr. Sprow is a member of the firm’s Mechanical & Electromechanical Technologies and Electronics Practices and the Automotive Industry Team.
Mr. Sprow has extensive knowledge in the areas of energy storage systems, battery and capacitor technology, and vehicle electrification, having significant experience with lithium-ion, nickel-metal-hydride, lead-acid, and metal-air batteries, as well as with various capacitor technologies. He has helped clients protect their technology relating to battery chemistry, cell design, vehicle and system integration, thermal management, manufacturing techniques, and battery management software, among others. Mr. Sprow currently serves as outside counsel to the largest manufacturer of automotive batteries in the world, a large global medical device company, an international metal-air battery producer that began as a spinoff of a Norwegian university, and various other companies having battery technology at the core of their business.
In addition to managing the IP portfolios for some of the firm’s largest battery clients (preparing and prosecuting many hundreds of patent applications in the battery and capacitor areas), Mr. Sprow and his team provide counseling in all facets of IP, including helping clients with due diligence, licensing, contract negotiation, and freedom-to-practice issues, and has prepared numerous opinions of counsel with respect to various battery patents. He provided pre-litigation counseling for a client interested in asserting its lithium battery patents against its competitors and foreign importers, and helped another client acquire the battery manufacturing business of a competitor. Mr. Sprow has represented venture capitalists as they assess whether to invest in start-up battery companies. He also has significant government contracting experience, representing his clients as they negotiate with the United States Department of Energy, the United States Advanced Battery Consortium, and other government and quasi-government agencies, and helping them to implement procedures for ensuring that they comply with their contractual obligations.
As a member of one of the largest intellectual property practices in the United States, he counsels clients and provides business-focused solutions relating to issues such as:
- Strategic patent procurement and portfolio management
- Trade secret protection and enforcement
- Patent clearance and freedom-to-operate analyses
- Intellectual property considerations in bankruptcy, mergers, acquisitions, and other business transactions
- Intellectual property rights and obligations under U.S. government funding contracts
- Agreement negotiation and analysis (e.g., confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, joint development and consulting service agreements, license arrangements, etc.)
- Intellectual property asset valuations
- Risk avoidance strategies for technology-focused companies
Mr. Sprow received his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His undergraduate degree, in materials science engineering, was also awarded by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, summa cum laude, where he received numerous honors and was involved in a variety of engineering societies, including serving as the president of the University of Michigan chapter of the Alpha Sigma Mu Metallurgical and Materials Science Honor Society.
Mr. Sprow was selected for inclusion in the 2011 and 2012 Michigan Super Lawyers – Rising Stars® editions. In 2011, he was also selected to DBusiness’ Top Lawyers list for his work in intellectual property law. The list was based on a peer review of over 21,000 votes, honoring excellence in 50 practice areas. Mr. Sprow is also a graduate of the Detroit Regional Chamber's Leadership Detroit Class XXXI.
A member of both the State Bars of Michigan and Wisconsin, Mr. Sprow is also registered to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office. He is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Wisconsin Intellectual Property Law Association, the Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association, the Federal Circuit Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and the American Society for Materials.