Christopher V. Carani, Esq., A/IDSA
McAndrews, Held & Malloy
Christopher V. Carani, Esq., A/IDSA, is a partner and shareholder at the intellectual property law firm of McAndrews, Held & Malloy, Ltd. (“McAndrews”) based in Chicago. He is a leading voice in the field of intellectual property, including enforcement and procurement of utility patents, design patents, trademarks, trade dress and copyrights.
Carani represents some of the world’s most design-centric companies, including the top filer of US design patents. He counsels a wide range of clients on strategic design protection and enforcement issues; he is often called upon to render infringement, validity and design-around opinions. Carani has worked with clients securing more than 2,000 design rights in more than 70 countries.
Carani also has extensive experience litigating IP cases, including representations before US District Courts, the Federal Circuit, US Supreme Court and the ITC. In the landmark design patent case Egyptian Goddess v. Swisa, he authored amicus briefs on behalf of the AIPLA at both the petition and en banc stages, taking positions which were ultimately adopted by the Federal Circuit. In Calmar, Inc. v. Arminak & Assoc., Carani authored a brief on behalf of IDSA in support of a petition for writ of certiori to the US Supreme Court. In 2015, IAM Magazine included Carani in its IAM Patent 1000, referring to him as one of the “US’s pre-eminent design law experts.”
Carani currently serves as chair of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI-US) Design Rights Committee; is a former chair of the American Bar Association’s Design Rights Committee and the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s (AIPLA) Committee on Industrial Designs. He is serving a three-year appointment to the Board of Directors for the US chapter of AIPPI.
The adjunct professor of law on the faculty of the Northwestern University School is teaching Intellectual Property Law, a course which covers patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret law. Prior to joining McAndrews, Carani served as a law clerk to the Honorable Rebecca R. Pallmeyer at the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and was conferred his Juris Doctorate from The Law School at The University of Chicago. He holds a bachelor of science in engineering from Marquette University.
He is licensed to practice before the US Supreme Court; the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals; and other US District Courts. Carani is a registered patent attorney licensed to practice before the USPTO and has received awards and accolades including IAM Patent 1000 (2015), Super Lawyers (2007-2016) and Leading Lawyers Network (2013-15). He has published and lectured extensively on the topic of design IP, including presentations at USPTO; the World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva); the Korean Patent Office (Daejeon); the Chinese Patent Office (Beijing) and the European Union’s Office of Harmonization of the Internal Markets (Alicante, Spain).
He is a frequent contributor to CNN and Bloomberg TV on intellectual property law issues, often called upon to provide comment to other media outlets, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, PBS TV, CNBC TV, BBC, Reuters, InformationWeek, Fast Company, ComputerWorld, PCWorld, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Fortune and FoxBusiness TV.
Carani also is a studied jazz musician, playing upright bass on the Chicago jazz circuit.
