George C. Lewis PE
Merchant & Gould
George C. Lewis emphasizes developing and managing patent and trademark portfolios to support the business goals of his clients. Whether coordinating the IP clearance and protection for a new product or handling the ongoing management of an existing corporate intellectual property (IP) portfolio that spans multiple product lines, George focuses on creating a coordinated portfolio of IP assets (encompassing patent, trade secret, trademark and copyright protection as appropriate) that supports his clients' strategic business plans and goals. Drawing on his extensive experience as an engineer in research, design, operations and project management, George develops and integrates IP protection programs that suit his clients and their products, business models and markets to aggressively protect their market positions and provide a strong foundation for future growth. Because of his diverse experience and his training in both electrical and chemical arts, George is uniquely suited to assist clients in responding to the modern IP challenges confronting corporate counsel, challenges that include not only protecting a company's core business and brands, but also must address IP issues associated with the ancillary technologies and corporate functions necessary to a modern business, such as manufacturing techniques, environmental concerns, IT infrastructure, business methods, internet presence and supply chain management. In his legal practice, George relies heavily on the experience gained in his prior career as a consulting engineer in Electrical and Chemical Engineering.
As an electrical engineer, George worked for ITT's Antarctic Services on advanced sensors including magnetometers, photon counters, radio frequency receivers and ultraviolet radiation sensors and for a small electrical consulting firm on lighting and power distribution technologies. After earning his Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, George worked as a consultant primarily to the mining, railroad and oil and gas industries designing and building chemical process systems including the electrical control systems. This work focused on manufacturing processes, water treatment, hazardous waste treatment and air quality treatment but also included industrial process development, environmental remediation projects and hazardous materials emergency response. His engineering consulting career has provided George with first-hand experience with most major industrial processes including food processing; brewing; oil refining; natural gas production; hard rock, coal and commodity minerals mining operations (surface and underground); railroad, shipping and transportation operations; silicon chip manufacturing; aluminum manufacturing; research facilities; and consumer electronics manufacturing.
As one would expect, George has provided legal assistance to a similarly diverse group of clients over the years including medical device manufacturers; software developers; pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturers; plumbing fitting manufacturers; natural gas transportation clients; mining companies; water storage and treatment clients; mass media clients; and consumer product clients including clothing, consumer electronics and sporting goods to name but a few. George also practices copyright and trademark law for media and entertainment clients in the Rocky Mountain region. His work includes clearance of trademarks for nationally-broadcast television and internet programs and assisting writers and artists with registration and enforcement of copyrights on their works, including internet enforcement against pirates and counterfeiters. George has extensive experience in the seizure of domain names from cybersquatters (both via ICANN proceedings and where that is not possible through court action) and taking down webpages and websites that contain infringing copies, works or counterfeit goods. His work also includes clearing trademark usage in screenplays, clearing copyrighted song and other work usage in videos and films, analyzing script clearance reports for filmmakers and supporting filmmakers during the filming and distribution process. For consumer product clients, George assists his clients in determining the best mix of copyright, design patent, trademark and patent protection for each product and product line. By the very nature of the consumer product markets, this determination is made in light of the anticipated foreign and US competition and also takes into account the realities of overseas contract manufacturing so common in the industry.
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