Allen Krass is a member of our Intellectual Property Department and has explored most areas of intellectual property law during his long and distinguished career. He has been involved in the prosecution of important patents covering inventions such as the basic numerical control system invented at MIT, programmable thermostats, electronic TV Guide and holography. He has represented plaintiffs and defendants in patent, copyright and trademark infringement litigation as well as cases involving trade secrets, licensing disputes, unfair competition among others. His most famous case occurred when he defended a highly publicized lawsuit by Johnny Carson against a portable toilet distributor operating under the trade name “Here’s Johnny.”

Allen has been involved in a number of situations in which a patent issues after many companies have gone into the business of producing the patented product. Resolution of the problem for the patent owner requires a careful choice of negotiating, licensing and litigation techniques and tests the skills of a patent attorney.

He received a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctor with distinction from Wayne State University, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He was a patent attorney for the Research Laboratories Division of Bendix Corp. and continued to represent Bendix after entering private practice