Michael Joseph Harris

Michael Joseph Harris — Patent Litigation Practice Summary

Michael J. Harris (USPTO Reg. No. 62,957) is a principal shareholder in Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.'s Chicago office, where he has practiced since joining the firm in 2003. He focuses on intellectual property litigation and counseling, with a technical grounding in electrical engineering (B.S.E.E., Valparaiso University, 2000) and prior experience as an electrical engineer for the Illinois Commerce Commission. His docket centers on consumer-product and manufacturing technology — most prominently Nike's FLYKNIT knitted-footwear patents, including knit textile uppers, cleat/shoe sole assemblies, and cushioning systems — with additional exposure to gaming-machine patents (MGT Gaming v. WMS Gaming) and design patents. Per Legal 500, he has been part of Banner & Witcoff teams handling high-volume design-patent work for Nike for decades.

Harris works both sides of the docket but his tracked matters skew toward representing a single operating company, Nike, as both plaintiff and patent owner: one plaintiff-side appearance (Nike, Inc. v. Puma North America, No. 1:18-cv-10876, D. Mass.) and one defendant-side appearance (Adidas AG v. Nike, Inc., IPR2016-00921/-00922). In Nike v. Puma, the court denied Puma's § 101 dismissal motion (Oct. 2018) and its motion to stay pending IPR (June 2019); the case closed in January 2020. In Adidas v. Nike, Harris served as backup counsel in IPRs where the PTAB found Adidas failed to prove obviousness of two Flyknit patents, a decision the Federal Circuit affirmed in June 2020 (Adidas AG v. Nike, Inc., 19-1787, -1788). He was also part of the Banner & Witcoff team that won summary judgment of non-infringement for Nike against Akeva's 19 asserted footwear patents in M.D.N.C. (2019), and, per Legal 500, helped Nike fend off five design-patent IPRs filed by Skechers.

PTAB/IPR: Harris appears regularly before the PTAB as backup counsel in inter partes reviews defending Nike patents (the adidas Flyknit IPRs, the Skechers design-patent IPRs, and Puma's IPR2019-01043), though Christopher Renk typically serves as lead. He is also a published author on patent litigation damages (Chapter 31, Patent Litigation Strategies Handbook, 3d ed.).

Bar/education: Admitted Illinois (2003), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Fourth and Fifth Circuits, N.D. Ill., and E.D. Mo.; J.D. (cum laude), University of Illinois College of Law (2003). (Note: a Martindale entry lists a "1973" first admission, which appears to be a data error and is not corroborated by any firm source.)

Sources: Banner & Witcoff announcements and Legal 500 recognition notices; Federal Circuit opinion in Adidas AG v. Nike, Inc. (CourtListener); PTAB filings (PTACTS/Docket Alarm); VitalLaw IP Law Daily; Ex Parte/Docket Alarm case dockets; Martindale profile. No verifiable information on any prior law firm; his pre-Banner career was in engineering, not private practice.