Karl Maersch

Karl Maersch is a Partner in Cooper & Maersch and has over 20 years of experience in intellectual property law, corporate law, and M&A.

In prior roles, Karl was the CEO of West Four IP, an intellectual property consulting firm that provided IP strategy advice, patent and technology licensing, and intellectual property valuation and monetization services to its clients.  In the 8 years Karl operated West Four IP, the firm’s clients realized over $550M in revenue from intellectual property projects that Karl directed.

Prior to founding West Four IP, Karl was head of intellectual property litigation worldwide for The Dow Chemical Company.  In that role, Karl managed various offensive IP litigation and licensing matters, including filing the company’s first-ever ITC complaint, which resulted in a 25-year exclusion order, believed to be the longest exclusion order in the history of the International Trade Commission.

Prior to joining Dow, Karl was Associate General Counsel of the Eastman Kodak company where he managed a team of attorneys, technologists, and licensing executives that supported the company’s intellectual property functions, including patent licensing, patent valuation, patent sales, patent litigation, patent-based M&A, and brand licensing.  Karl also managed the IP aspects of Kodak’s bankruptcy.  During his time at Kodak, the company generated over $4.0B in revenue from IP.

Karl started his career at Jones Day where he litigated intellectual property disputes in U.S. District Court, at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the ITC, and in various courts in Europe and Asia.  While at Jones Day, Karl headed discovery for a 57-patent lawsuit, believed to be the case with the most patents-in-suit ever.

Karl has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a JD from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law where he was a founder and the first Editor-in-Chief of the UIC Review of Intellectual Property Law.  He is a patent attorney and registered to practice before the US Patent & Trademark Office.  He is also registered to practice law in Ohio.