An Environment of Innovation

Gadgets and gizmos.

That’s the favorite part of the job for Patrick G. Burns ’78, a founding member of the intellectual property firm Greer, Burns & Crain.

Over his esteemed career, Burns has seen his fair share of gadgets and gizmos. He started in IP law before the internet was invented and graduated from Chicago-Kent College of Law before it launched its IP program.

“When I was in school, I took one course in patent law. That was it,” he says. “That was before the so-called technology boom. Today the IP program is much more than that, thanks to dedicated professors like Ron Staudt.”  

During law school, Burns got a job clerking at an IP firm, where he continued as an associate after he graduated. He had previously worked as an engineer for Motorola, which made him a prime candidate for patent law.

“I needed a job, and I had a good background for patents,” he says. “I’ve stayed in it because I like gadgets and gizmos. I’m comfortable with engineers, with inventors, comfortable in the environment of innovation.”

Early in his law career, Burns worked with inventors who were rapidly expanding the memory capacity of hard disks in Japan.  

You can also thank him for his work on wide-angle viewing capabilities on LCD screens, many of the patents for which he helped secure.

“In the beginning, you had to look straight at the screen to see anything,” he says. “If you moved to an angle, the screen went blank. We did patent work on innovations and inventions that allows us to see the image on the screen from various angles.”

In the early 1990’s, Burns and two colleagues opened their own firm—Greer, Burns, & Crain, Ltd—that focused solely on IP cases.  

“I had an opportunity with a client that I wanted to go for,” he says, “and starting that firm was the best way to do that.”

A few years later, he hired B. Joe Kim ’95, who is now a partner at the firm.

“Pat became my mentor when I was just starting out as an attorney,” says Kim. “He took me under his wing and taught me everything I know about being a patent lawyer, not just the legal practice, but also the business side.   

“Pat was, and still is, incredibly generous with his time,” Kim adds. “He was patient, approachable, and never overbearing. He is not only an exceptional mentor, but also a valued friend. I feel extremely fortunate to have crossed paths with him when I did.”

When Burns wasn’t mentoring young attorneys at his firm, he was teaching law students.  

He’s served as an adjunct professor at Chicago-Kent and taught patent law at private company seminars and classes in Japan.

“Teaching has made me a much better lawyer,” he says. “The seminars I taught at were for advanced practicing attorneys, and those people were up to date on things, and they had tough questions. I learned a lot, and that drove me in those years.”

His thirst for knowledge and drive to succeed is what has kept him in the IP field for so long.

“I like the learning curve. It never ends,” he says. “In the patent field there are some issues that just don’t have easy answers. When I started, the pace of innovation was much slower, so the law was better able to not get too far behind technology. But in the time that I’ve practiced, technology has taken off at an incredible pace, exponential. The law has had a lot of trouble keeping up.”

“We struggle with what to do with new technologies such as artificial intelligence,” he says. “When I started, there was no biotech, nor pharma, no cell phones, and no internet. The Patent and Trademark Office and the courts are tasked with figuring out what’s going on technologically and applying the law to the new technologies. Unfortunately, the court is still struggling with things such as computer software [and] what to do with that from a patent standpoint. We’re way behind.”

Burns has seen the field of IP law grow as the technology has. In 1978 the United States Trademark and Patent Office granted 66,102 utility patents. In 2020 the agency granted 352,066.

As the field has grown, Burns has done his part to put Chicago at the center.  

He served as president of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago, served on its Board of Managers, and was chairman of its Computer Technology Committee. He also spent time as chairman of the Patent, Trademark, and Copyright Committee of the Chicago Bar Association.

“I think that Chicago has a very strong IP community, and we have a strong bench in the federal court,” he says. “Through my involvement in these organizations, I have tried to promote Chicago as a great place for intellectual property.”

Burns currently focuses his practice on patent prosecution and opinions, but that may not last long. These days he’s looking forward to retirement.

“We can look at things that we did not do or goals we did not meet, or we can look back at where we started and see how far we have come,” he says. “Looking back from where I started, I’ve done great. Really great.”