J.R. MaddoxAttorney, Shareholder

Business clients rely on my litigation experience to mitigate risk and help keep them out of court. Whether it’s a well-written contract or an effectively handled negotiation, I work to protect your business assets and build your enterprise value.

I provide legal counsel to businesses of all sizes, from start-ups to large corporations. Understanding the science behind the technology allows me to provide the most valuable, effective, and cost-efficient legal solutions.

Creating an intellectual property strategy, I will help you identify, monetize, and protect your assets. If need be, we will enforce your intellectual property rights to safeguard your business and uphold the barriers to entry that strengthen your competitive advantage.

Regarding your business technology, I will assist you in comprehensively analyzing the applicable laws, from websites and e-commerce to smartphone apps. From there I can help you navigate compliance issues, develop internal efficiencies, mitigate risk and liability, and maximize the value of the technology so your business can flourish.

I find it personally and professionally rewarding to help people build their businesses.

ASSISTANT

Vicki Vien

(612) 252-2847

vvien@hensonefron.com

• Advising multi-national medical device manufacturer on wide range of intellectual property, licensing and privacy and data security issues
• Advising multiple clients in negotiating contracts for Google cloud services
• Successfully representing maker of custom corporate goods and promotional products in negotiating trademark merchandising license agreement with Uber
• Successfully representing client in license negotiations with Dolby Laboratories, Inc.
• Successfully representing national automotive company in take-down of multiple third-party websites for trademark and copyright violations
• Advising on intellectual property issues in acquisition of health care industry consulting group valued in excess of $140 million
• Advising one of North America’s largest packaged food companies on a range of forward-looking intellectual property issues, as well as developing tools to capture client’s intellectual property during product development, and to streamline in-house legal affairs
• Advising Fortune 500 food company regarding its investments in early-stage, innovative food companies
• Advising multi-national manufacturing company in negotiating and implementing collaboration agreements, as well as other intellectual property-related agreements
• Successfully representing maker of outdoor tools and gear in obtaining registered patent on first lighted hunting knife
• Regularly counseling clients regarding terms and conditions and privacy policies for websites and apps
• Regularly counseling clients regarding privacy and data security issues, including preparing data breach response plans, as well as analyzing potential data breach events
• Regularly counseling clients regarding end user license agreements for software and apps, including for use in the health care industry
• Regularly counseling clients in selecting trademarks and obtaining U.S. trademark registrations
• Regularly counseling client in obtaining U.S. copyright registrations
• Successfully defending pet food maker against claims of false advertising
• Defending one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in numerous ANDA patent lawsuits arising under the Hatch-Waxman Act
• Representing a celebrity inventor, patent holder, and entrepreneur in multiple scenarios enforcing her intellectual property
• Successfully defending celebrity inventor, patent holder, and entrepreneur in lawsuit alleging 40+ counts of copyright infringement and claiming $30 million in damages. Case was dismissed and plaintiff was ordered to pay client’s attorneys’ fees.

• J.D., University of Minnesota Law School, 2003
• B.S., Molecular Genetics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1999

• United States Patent and Trademark Office
• Minnesota State Bar
• Minnesota Federal Bar
• S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin

• Certified Information Privacy Professional

• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2022-2023, Litigation – Intellectual Property

• Minnesota State Bar Association
• Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association
• American Intellectual Property Law Association

• Mentor, University of St. Thomas School of Law Mentor Externship Program, 2016-Present

• Co-Author, "Protect Yourself and Your Employees From Identity Theft During COVID-19," Henson Efron Thought Leadership, October 2020
• Co-Author, "U.S. Supreme Court Resolves Treatment of Trademark Licenses in Bankruptcy," Henson Efron Thought Leadership, June 16, 2019
• Co-Author, "Although Copyrights Vest Immediately, Enforcing Them Requires Another Step," Henson Efron Thought Leadership, April 16, 2019
• Co-Author, "Protecting your Business Reputation Online," Henson Efron Thought Leadership, March 27, 2018
• “Privacy and Data Security,” U.S. Bank CPE, presented November 10, 2016
• “Social Media Rules of Engagement:  Developing Policies for Health-Related Organizations to Effectively Engage Audiences Online,” Panelist, May 26, 2011
• “Practical and Ethical Issues of Legal Outsourcing,” Michigan State Bar Annual Meeting, presented September 18, 2009
• “IP Offshoring—Don’t Worry You Won’t Lose Your Job,” BPG Radio, www.bpgradio.com, January 30, 2008
• “The Inventor Who Died and Other Mysteries—Resolved,” Intellectual Property Today, Vol. 15, No. 1 (January 2008), pp. 36–38
• “Using Copyright and Trade Secret Law to Protect Patent Applications: Either Or No More,” The Patent Lawyer, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (Spring 2005), pp. 4–7