Overview
Christopher (Chris) M. King is a partner and intellectual property lawyer with Foley & Lardner LLP. He is a member of the firm's Mechanical & Electromechanical Technologies Practice and the Energy, Food & Beverage, Manufacturing, and Supply Chain Solutions Industry Teams.
Chris provides a broad range of intellectual property (IP) services, focusing his work on patent counseling, IP-focused commercial agreements, and IP transaction counseling. As a patent counselor, he helps clients identify and implement the appropriate strategy to protect their innovations; identify and mitigate IP infringement risks by providing freedom to operate and clearance opinions and consulting on design arounds; and develop and implement enforcement strategies against competitors infringing on client patents. Chris regularly prepares and negotiates a wide range of IP-focused commercial agreements, including collaboration, license, joint development, services, and employee confidential information and invention assignment agreements. Chris routinely counsels clients on the IP aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and other commercial transactions and prepares and negotiates the IP provisions of the transaction agreements and any ancillary IP agreements. Chris provides detailed insights and risk mitigation recommendations when conducting due diligence on IP ownership, IP disputes and infringement risks, registered IP portfolios, IP-focused agreements, corporate IP strategies and policies, and use of open source software by leveraging his experience from his IP counseling and agreement practices.
Chris is a trusted business advisor to clients in numerous industries, including smart buildings, batteries and energy storage, engines and power generation, outdoor power equipment, electric vehicles, hydrogen generation and distribution, oil and gas, automation, hand tools, consumer products, and food service equipment.
Chris provides pro bono services to Wisconsin inventors and entrepreneurs by volunteering at IP brief advice clinics through a virtual clinic that Chris helped LegalCORPS establish in Wisconsin and providing full patent application and drafting representation to low income inventors.
Experience
Chris' representative mergers & acquisitions matters include:
- Counsel for Rockwell Automation with respect to the formation with Schlumberger of the global joint venture known as Sensia.
- Counsel for Rockwell Automation in its $2.22 billion in cash acquisition of cloud software provider Plex Systems.
- Counsel for mdf commerce, a leader in SaaS commerce technology solutions, in its definitive agreement to acquire Periscope Intermediate Corp., a leading eProcurement solution provider, in a transaction worth approximately $207.25 million.
- Counsel for Plantronics, Inc., a leading telephone headset maker, in its $2 billion cash and stock acquisition of Polycom Inc.
- Counsel for Novacap, a large Canadian-based private equity fund in its acquisition of Kingsdown Inc., a well-known mattress manufacturer in America.
Affiliations
Prior to entering law school, Chris was a manufacturing engineer with General Motors, where he supervised a department of skilled tradespersons.
Education
Chris earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from Marquette University Law School (J.D., 2009). He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.S., 2000) and was a member of both Tau Beta Pi (national engineering honor society) and Pi Tau Sigma (national mechanical engineering honor society).
Admissions
Chris is a registered patent attorney, admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He is also admitted to practice in Wisconsin and before the Eastern District Court of Wisconsin.