F. Christopher Austin | Las Vegas Intellectual Property Lawyer

Mr. Austin is a highly experienced commercial litigator and intellectual property lawyer.
 
Mr. Austin has spent the past 13 years helping businesses and individuals defend and protect their patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets.  He has particularly excelled in emergency actions to stop infringement and seize infringing materials upon the commencement of an action—often resolving the matter.  He has also defended clients from unfair infringement claims often brought by competitors seeking to improperly use the court to limit competition.
 
His efforts on behalf of the following clients are representative. He secured the seizure of lawn mowers and tractors infringing on Briggs and Stratton’s trademarks, trade dress and patents at the National Hardware show; prevented importation into the country of knock-off Gibson Les Paul guitars; obtained court orders to seize infringing Cartier watches, Dooney and Burke handbags and the freezing of infringer’s financial accounts; and rebuffed infringement attacks on the “B-Beatle Show,” and “The Rat Pack Is Back” productions, among numerous other successful efforts on behalf of his clients.
 
In addition, Mr. Austin brings complex commercial litigation and trial experience to the firm, having worked for some of the largest law firms in the country and the State (Greenberg Traurig and Holland and Hart, formerly Hale Lane).  He even appeared before a Kazakhstan appeals court on behalf of a Nevada oil company in connection with a shareholder dispute, among other complex commercial litigation efforts.
 
He commenced his legal career as a JAG officer of the United States Air Force, at Nellis AFB, Nevada.  There he prosecuted and defended military courts martial, prosecuted civilian crimes on federal land before the Nevada US District Court as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, and defended the Air Force in multi-million dollar wrongful death, personal injury and other claims litigation.

Position	Organization	Location	Duration
Shareholder	Kolesar & Leatham	Las Vegas, Nevada	07/2012 - present
Of Counsel / Associate	Greenberg Traurig, LLP	Las Vegas, Nevada	2005 - 07/2012
Associate	Quirk & Tratos, LLP (merged into Greenberg Traurig)	Las Vegas, Nevada	2002 - 2005
Associate	Santoro, Driggs, Walch, Kearney, Holly & Thompson	Las Vegas, Nevada	2001 - 2002
Associate	Hale Lane (later merged with Holland & Hart)	Las Vegas, Nevada	1999 - 2002
Judge Advocate (Captain)	United States Air Force	Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada	1995 - 1999
Intellegence Analyst / Linquist	United States National Security Agency	Ft. Meade, Maryland	1988 - 1991 (Summer-Fall Terms)

School	Degree	Major	Graduation
Brigham Young University	B.A.		N/A

State / Court	Date
Nevada State and Federal Courts	1998
Utah State and Federal Courts	1995

• American Bar Association, Intellectual Property Practice Section and Commercial Litigation Section
  Federalist Society
  

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	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm	9:00 am - 5:00 pm

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