About

Dean A. Pelletier is the founder of Pelletier Law, LLC.

Dean has been practicing intellectual property (IP) law for nearly 30 years and focuses on leveraging patents and trade secrets.

Dean is a member of the Illinois bar, a registered U.S. patent attorney, a member of the Trial Bar for the Northern District of Illinois, a Certified Information Privacy Professional – United States (CIPP/US), a Certified Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) and actively involved with the American Intellectual Property Law Association (Trade Secret Law Committee) and Sedona Conference (Working Group 12 on Trade Secrets; Steering Committee Member, 2021-2024).

In his practice, Dean accounts for the people, IP and technology at issue as well as corporate, marketplace and global realities.  His experience encompasses various industries, technologies and assets and has been honed in various venues and across multiple cultures.

Dean’s experience includes litigating and trying, as a first chair, IP and commercial disputes and counseling clients on and helping them seize IP and related opportunities.  Dean has litigated and tried cases in U.S district courts, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and state courts and has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Dean’s litigation and trial experience provides an informed perspective in the courtroom and beyond, including when conducting early IP case assessments, conducting an IP audit, drafting and negotiating IP agreements and counseling on IP matters.

His experience includes representing Amsted Industries, the prevailing trade secret owner, in TianRui v. ITC, 661 F.3d 1322 (Fed. Cir. 2011), a case that has had a profound impact on U.S. trade secret law and U.S. trade secret owners. He also successfully litigated and tried a patent infringement case that resulted in an $ 80 million award.

Dean has been a keynote IP speaker, presenter and panelist at multiple professional and legal trade shows, conferences and meetings.

He has been a guest IP lecturer at Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management and Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business.

Dean has written many IP law articles and posts, including those below, and a number of those can be accessed through his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dean-pelletier-31a0681/

SCOTUS Patent Scorecard and SCOTUS Patent Scorecard Updates

AI and Trade Secrets Collide

Protecting AI-Generated Inventions as Trade Secrets Requires Protecting the Generative AI as Well (co-author)

Never Out of Style: Properly Tailored Inevitable Misappropriation Claims and Contractual Provisions

Trade Secret Identification: Inertia, Sufficient Particularity, Patent Claim Form and Timeliness

Effectively And Efficiently Asserting A Trade Secret Misappropriation Claim Depends On Steps Taken Before The Claim Arises

The Sedona Conference Commentary on the Proper Identification of Asserted Trade Secrets in Misappropriation Lawsuits (contributing editor)

The GOAT’s IP Strategy Isn’t Terrific

International Chamber of Commerce Report: Protecting Trade Secrets – Recent EU and US Reforms (chapter coordinator and lead drafter)

Theranos Investors: Defrauded, Foolish or Both?

Dean is a Massachusetts native, but his educational roots are in the Midwest. He received his J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 1995 and his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University in 1991.