Daniel Farris is an associate in Holland & Knight's Litigation Group. Mr. Farris concentrates his litigation and transactional practice in the areas of intellectual property, technology and corporate law. As a former software engineer and network administrator, Mr. Farris has an extensive background in the information technology and telecommunications industries – a skill utilized on behalf of his intellectual property, healthcare and corporate clients. Mr. Farris is experienced in all phases of litigation, ranging from case initiation through discovery to trial. He has been involved in litigation in numerous federal courts and has argued before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Mr. Farris' intellectual property practice emphasizes patent protection and litigation, although Mr. Farris has substantial additional experience related to trademark and copyright law; unfair competition; trade secret protection and misappropriation; software development and licensing agreements; and Internet-related matters, including Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) proceedings, cybersquatting, e-commerce, and the Digital Millennium Copyright and Stored Communication Acts. He also has experience with Office Actions and Oppositions in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 

In the area of corporate formation and governance, Mr. Farris’ practice includes both business litigation and counseling. He assists clients in a variety of structural and management decisions, including choice of corporate form, drafting and revision of Articles and Bylaws, director and officer authority, capital projects, equity and debt financing, public and private securities offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Farris is also experienced in drafting and revising employment agreements, employee handbooks, and non-disclosure, non-solicitation and non-compete agreements. He has represented employment clients in employment discrimination litigation in a variety of state and federal courts, as well as administrative agencies, including the EEOC, DOL, NLRB, IDOL, IDHR and the City of Chicago Commission on Human Relations. 

Mr. Farris is a volunteer coach for the Loyola Health Law and Wagner Labor and Employment Law Moot Court teams. From 2006 through 2011, the teams he coached earned six semifinal appearances, two best brief awards, a second best oralist award, a best final round oralist award and four national championships. Mr. Farris is also active in a variety of public interest charitable organizations.

Representative Patent Litigations

• Adjustacam, LLC v. Jasco Products (E.D. Tex.). Representing multiple defendants in this case involving web cameras.
• Arrival Star S.A. v. BSM Wireless (N.D. Ill.). Represented defendant in patent infringement lawsuit alleging infringement of patent covering shipping and destination software.
• Fire 'Em Up v. Technocarb & Aurora Electronics (N.D. Ill.). Represented multiple defendants in a patent infringement and trade secret case involving dual fuel conversion systems allowing for the introduction of a secondary alternative fuel into internal combustion and/or diesel engines.
• GeoTag LLC v. Herman Miller, Inc. (E.D. Tex.). Representing Herman Miller in a patent infringement case involving store locator technology for websites.
• Greenlight LLC v. Jasco Products (E.D. Tex.). Represented defendant in this case involving light sensors. 
• Helferich Patent Licensing v. J.C. Penney Corp. (N.D.Ill).  Defending J.C. Penney against claims of patent infringement based upon use of link shortening technology in social media marketing and SMS/MMS text messaging.
• Innovatio IP Ventures v. Accor North America (N.D. Ill.). Defending Accor against claims alleging infringement based upon the 802.11x wireless networking standard.
• Innovatio IP Ventures v. Meijer, Inc. (N.D. Ill.). Defending Meijer against claims alleging infringement based upon the 802.11x wireless networking standard.
• Intellect Wireless, Inc. v. HTC Corp., et al. (N.D. Ill.). Represented AT&T Mobility along with joint defendants HTC, HTC America, Research in Motion and Motorola against lawsuit alleging infringement of patent in Multimedia Messaging Service ("MMS") used by cell phone manufacturers and cellular service providers to allow text, picture and video messaging.
• LG Electronics v. Motorola (N.D. Ill.). Represented LG Electronics in litigation related to underlying patent infringement action brought by VIZIO against LG in Maryland. Illinois representation related to Motorola information and potential liability as prior owner of television patents.
• Meyer Corp. v. Bodum (N.D. Ill.). Tried case for plaintiff involving nonelectric milk frothers, winning a full plaintiff's verdict including a willfulness finding.
• MVConnect v. Digital Recognition Network (N.D. Ill.). Representing defendant in this case involving digital license plate recognition.
• Select Retrieval v. Chelsea & Scott, Ltd (N.D. Ill.). Defending Chelsea & Scott against claims alleging infringement of a patent involving Internet technology for housing hierarchical graphical listings in a database library.
• Select Retrieval v. Meijer, Inc. (N.D. Ill.). Defending Meijer against claims alleging infringement of a patent involving Internet technology for housing hierarchical graphical listings in a database library.
• SFA v. Meijer, Inc. (E.D. Tex.). Representing Meijer in a patent infringement case involving Internet technology for suggesting related products to a shopper.

Relevant Transactional Representations

• Avantcare, Inc. Represent a manufacturer of nutraceuticals and dietary supplements in a variety of matters ranging from corporate structure and governance to intellectual property protection, enforcement, licensing, marketing/advertising and product distribution.
• Illinois Rural Healthnet. Represent a nonprofit telecommunications consortium receiving grant funding under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program to build out, operate and license statewide fiber optic broadband network, utilizing fiber, cable, point-to-point wireless and microwave over last mile lateral segments to develop high speed healthcare network to facilitate use of EMR and implementation of HIEs.
• iFiber (Northern Illinois University). Represent a nonprofit founded by NIU as part of consortium of partners receiving grant funding under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), as administered by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to develop 120+ strand fiber optic broadband network for public use across Northern Illinois.
• Integrated Solutions Consulting. Represent a federal contractor on a variety of matters related to the licensing and implementation of their hardware and SaaS (software) solutions related to homeland security, emergency management, preparedness, planning, response and recovery. Client's model integrates a variety of communications methods, from secure wireless to cellular to radio, to deliver real-time intelligence and information to first responders in the field.
• Concordis Group, Inc. Represent a U.S. holding company operating an offshore captive insurance company and domestic capital funding subsidiary as outside general counsel, assisting client with matters ranging from corporate formation and governance to compliance, and from employment matters to private securities offerings and related capital programs.

Other Relevant Background & Experience

• Corecomm, Ltd. Worked as a software engineer for an integrated telecommunications provider (phone, wireless, Internet and cable) with a footprint in 13 states across New England and the Midwest from 1998 through 2000.
• Chicago Office of Emergency Management & Communications. Was the first technical hire by the City's Emergency Management agency, created in the wake of 9/11. Developed software, database and network solutions, and worked with wireless and radio personnel to deliver information securely and rapidly to lightweight devices in the field use by first responders, including, for example, applications to integrate into onboard computers in police cruisers.
• Argonne National Laboratory. Was the web portal administrator for the laboratory, integrating multi-platform systems, data sources and networks from 48 separate research projects into single unified SaaS application.

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• Chicago Bar Association