Patent Attorney Raymond P. Niro Dies

Raymond P. Niro, one of the most influential patent lawyers in the U.S., died of a heart attack last week while vacationing in Italy. The Chicago-based lawyer graduated from George Washington University and went on to be a pioneering IP attorney. Niro won verdicts and settlements totaling more than $1 billion since 1996. “The reason [Niro] managed to get under the skin of so many giant tech companies was because he was very good at proving that large corporations infringed valid patents owned by his clients, sometimes on fundamentally important innovations,” IPWatchDog blogger Gene Quinn wrote of his friend.