Kristin Achterhof's Email & Phone

Kristin J. Achterhof, a partner in the Intellectual Property Practice at Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, concentrates her practice in the area of intellectual property litigation and counseling. Ms. Achterhof has handled a wide variety of complex intellectual property litigation, including the prosecution and defense of claims involving copyright, trademark, trade dress and patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, right of personality, false advertising, and a variety of other unfair competition claims. Several of the matters she has handled have involved novel or "cutting-edge" issues regarding the protection of intellectual property rights in computer software and a variety of emerging technologies, and the exploitation of copyrights and trademarks over the Internet. Ms. Achterhof has significant first-chair trial experience in matters pending in federal and state courts across the country, as well as before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and her clients include major motion picture houses and music recording companies, software and other technology development companies, industrial product manufacturers, print and broadcast media companies, trade associations, major insurance carriers, food and beverage importers and manufacturers, and a variety of national and international retailers, restaurant chains and famous apparel companies. By way of example, Ms. Achterhof has represented clients such as Universal Studios, Inc., Universal Music Group, Times Mirror, Inc., Home Box Office, Inc. (HBO), Fruit of the Loom, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Allstate Insurance Co., Planet Hollywood, Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Bausch & Lomb, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., Arcadia Group International, Zango, Inc., General Media, Inc., USA Cable Entertainment, LLC, AIG Technical Services, Inc., the Recording Industry Association of America, Inc., the Motion Picture Association of America, and Sony Music Corporation. In addition to her extensive litigation experience, Ms. Achterhof also represents clients in a variety of licensing, acquisition, distribution and vendor transactions involving clients' intellectual property rights, and counsels clients regarding the development, protection and licensing of proprietary technologies. Ms Achterhof also provides representation and counseling to clients in connection with the protection of copyrights, the clearance, policing and registration of trademarks, the identification and protection of trade secrets, and the enforcement of license, confidentiality and non-competition agreements. Ms. Achterhof regularly serves as a speaker and panel member for various business, legal practice and educational groups across the country, and she is frequently quoted and mentioned in a variety of national and international publications, including by way of example articles published by the National Law Journal, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Reuters News Service, IP Law & Business, Tech News World, Law.com, Birmingham Post and The Recorder, as a legal expert? in copyright and trademark matters. She has acted as a mediator for intellectual property disputes and is an active member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), as well as other bar association and practice-specific groups and organizations. Ms. Achterhof has served as a faculty member for the INTA Intellectual Property Trial Academy, and as a guest lecturer at Northwestern University School of Law, DePaul University College of Law and Chicago-Kent College of Law. She also contributed to a chapter addressing trademark protection that appeared in the treatise, Successful Partnering Between Inside And Outside Counsel,? published in 2000 by West Group, under the auspices of the American Corporate Counsel Association (ACCA), and she was involved in the drafting and negotiation of statutory language concerning amendments to the Lanham Act involving Internet "cybersquatters." In 2006, Ms. Achterhof was selected to speak before federal and state appellate judges from across the country regarding Trademark Infringement and Dilution Under the Lanham Act and State Common Law? and to participate in a panel presentation regarding Intellectual Property Issues Confronting the Courts? at the American Bar Association's Appellate Judges Summit. Ms. Achterhof graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, from Macalester College in 1988 and received a Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern University School of Law in 1991. She was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1991 and, since that time, has been admitted to practice in federal courts throughout the country.