The growth of the U.S. economy is based on innovation. Innovation relies on our legal system of intellectual property protection.

One historical explanation for why neither the Ancient Greeks nor the Roman Empire—despite all their other intellectual advances—invented the steam engine is because all technical knowledge was freely available. Their legal systems included no invention or patent rights as we know them. There was no incentive for industrial innovation.

Our legal system rewards innovation through intellectual property rights and patent protection. Patents are protected through patent infringement actions brought in court. But the greatest barrier to enforcing patents, copyrights and trademarks in court is the cost of patent litigation. Time and again, Girardi & Keese, representing clients only on a contingency basis, has come in as counsel in intellectual property infringement cases because the plaintiffs could no longer afford to pay the enormous legal fees other firms charge on an hourly basis. We have been able to help those plaintiffs enforce valuable patents in cases that otherwise would have been dropped, supporting the incentives for innovation. That is what drives our economy—and we are proud of it.