Bruce W. Baber
is a senior partner and founding member of the firm’s global Intellectual Property Practice. Mr. Baber is active in all aspects of the firm’s IP practice, with an emphasis on litigation and other contested matters.
Mr. Baber participates actively on behalf of a wide variety of clients in both jury and bench trials of patent, trademark, trade dress and copyright infringement litigation matters, as well as adversarial patent, trademark and false advertising proceedings before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Since he began practice in 1979, Mr. Baber has represented many global and nationally known companies in dozens of patent infringement, copyright infringement and trademark infringement, dilution and counterfeiting matters, as well as in a wide variety of false advertising disputes.
During the years 1990 through 1996, Mr. Baber served as Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for ACOG, the organizing committee for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, and ACOP, the marketing joint venture between ACOG and the U.S. Olympic Committee. As Chief IP Counsel for the Atlanta Games, Mr. Baber was responsible for the development, implementation and management of the extensive and effective trademark protection, anti-counterfeiting, anti-ambush marketing and anti-ticket scalping programs for the 1996 Games.
Most recently, Mr. Baber participated as one of the lead trial counsel for Google Inc. in the landmark Oracle America, Inc. v. Google Inc. copyright and patent infringement case in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. After a six-week jury trial in April and May of 2012, Google succeeded in obtaining dismissal of Oracle America’s copyright claims relating to the copyrightability of certain elements of Java programming language Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) used in the Android mobile device platform and won a jury verdict on all patent claims asserted by Oracle America.
In other recent cases, Mr. Baber has served and continues to serve as lead trial counsel for clients such as The Coca-Cola Company and United Parcel Service in intellectual property litigation in federal courts across the country. He has represented during his career many well-known consumer product and luxury brand owners, including Georgia-Pacific Consumer Products, Rolex, Nike, Izod, Polo Ralph Lauren, The Ritz Hotel, and licensees of the Italian designer Roberto Cavalli, in a variety of trademark and related matters.
Mr. Baber has substantial experience in the protection of trademarks, copyrights and other forms of intellectual property, the prosecution of applications for registration of such properties, and the development and implementation of worldwide protection strategies. He has been involved in numerous major licensing and other intellectual property related corporate transactions, joint venture agreements and marketing agreements.
Mr. Baber has been selected for many years by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in his practice area. He has also been included in multiple editions of The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500, The World Trademark Review WTR 1000 Guide to the World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, The International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers, numerous “Super Lawyer” lists, and other leading industry publications.
Mr. Baber graduated with distinction from Princeton University in 1976 and received his law degree with honors from the Duke University School of Law in 1979. He is a frequent speaker on intellectual property issues and has authored a number of articles on trademark matters.
Mr. Baber joined King & Spalding in 1979 and has been a partner in the firm since 1985. Mr. Baber has held a number of leadership positions within the firm, including serving as a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Task Force, as Practice Group Leader for the firm’s global Intellectual Property Practice Group (2000-2006), and as Chair of the firm’s Associate Evaluation Committee. He currently serves as a member of the firm’s Partners Committee.
