Darren Cahr
Overview
Darren S. Cahr helps clients develop, protect, and defend the intangible assets that define them. This includes brands, creative content, marketing practices, competitive positioning, and, increasingly, the data and technology that power modern business. Over a career spanning more than three decades, he has earned a national reputation as a courtroom advocate, boardroom counselor, and everyday advisor to companies navigating each new wave of technological transformation, from the early internet, to social media, to artificial intelligence.
Darren has litigated and tried a wide range of sophisticated intellectual property and advertising disputes in courts throughout the country, and before the International Trade Commission, the National Advertising Division, and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Darren also heads the Firm’s Advertising and Intellectual Property Practice, where he counsels clients on the strategic protection of intellectual property, brand selection and clearance, copyright and creative content, licensing and IP transactions, trade secrets, unfair competition, regulatory compliance, and false and comparative advertising. His counseling increasingly reaches the data and technology side of his clients’ operations, including privacy compliance and the development of internal governance policies for the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence. He has also worked extensively with experts on the legal framework of survey design.
Darren’s work has drawn sustained recognition. He was named to the 2026 Legal 500 Chicago Elite list for Intellectual Property (Contentious), and for well over a decade has been listed in the WTR 1000 among the world’s leading trademark professionals, where reviewers have praised his “smart, thorough and fast” counsel. He has repeatedly been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for Trademark Law, including having once been named Chicago “Lawyer of the Year” for Trademark Law, a distinction awarded to only one attorney in each practice area and market in a given year. Darren is “AV Preeminent” peer-reviewed rated by Martindale-Hubbell, reflecting the highest recognition for both ethical standards and legal ability, and has repeatedly been named an “IP Star” by Managing Intellectual Property.
Away from his work, Darren is a science-fiction novelist, a painter, and a musician, pursuits that inform the way he approaches the creative and technical problems at the heart of his practice.
Experience
Representative Matters:
- Successfully defeated false advertising claims against asserted against medical product distribution company
- Led sensitive and mission-critical internal investigations relating to allegations of trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement
- Advised corporate clients on the use and adoption of AI tools, including the creation of formal AI Policies, and led internal training sessions with executive teams
- Defeated trade dress claims after a bench trial on behalf of global construction product company, upheld on appeal
- Advised publicly traded real estate developer on marketing practices and digital advertising
- Represented major nutritional supplement company in large scale trademark infringement and false advertising litigation
- Led grey market enforcement effort on behalf of several international clients, including global oral health product manufacturer and European consumer product company
- Successfully defended complex infringement action before the International Trade Commission, after full hearing on the merits, and review by the full Commission
- Obtained summary judgment in defense of false advertising, false designation of origin, and trade secret claims, after extensive fact and expert discovery, including fee award
- Successfully argued appeal before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, overruling trademark application refusal on novel specimen issue for significant life sciences company
- Developed brand and IP strategies for global clients
- Advised well-known food, retail, and consumer products companies on marketing practices and social media issues
- Successfully represented major consumer products companies before nation’s premier advertising industry self-regulatory forums, National Advertising Division and Children’s Advertising Review Unit
- Counseled major insurance companies on intellectual property issues and marketing practices
- Negotiated trademark licensing transactions for significant consumer products companies and global retailers
- Advised national retailer on copyright and trademark issues, and successfully resolved a series of high-profile infringement disputes pre-litigation
- Coordinated international branding efforts with global network of foreign counsel for major life sciences company
- Reviewed and cleared major comparative advertising campaign for well-known national restaurant chain
- Counseled life-sciences companies on product packaging and legal risks emerging from parallel importation and counterfeiting
- Reviewed and designed legal framework for cutting-edge online promotions, including sweepstakes, contests, and other marketing practices
- Advised major toy and hobby company on copyright, trade secrets, and trademark issues
Professional Activities
- International Trademark Association – Vice Chair, Parallel Importation Committee
Publishing & Speaking
Representative Publications & Speaking Engagements
Recent Notable Speeches and Presentations:
- Speaker, “Advertising Challenges,” Chicago Bar Association IP Committee (September 2025)
- Speaker, “Keeping it Real: The Challenge of Authenticity in the Deepfake Era,” SCG Legal Mid Year Meeting (May 2024)
- Moderator, “Intellectual Property Trends to Watch in 2022 & Beyond,” SCG Legal Annual Meeting (September 2022)
- Instructor, “The Metaverse: The Future of the Web and the Law Inside Your Head,” Continuing Legal Education Module (July 2022)
- Speaker, “Trademarks and the Brain: Neuroscience and the Processing of Non-Literal Language,” Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association Scholarship Symposium (January 2022) (with Sandra M. Virtue, PhD)
- Speaker, “Hot Topics in Advertising Law: Health and Wellness Claims,” National Advertising Division/BBB National Programs (March 2021)
- Moderator, “What’s in a Name, Likeness and Image? The Prospect of a Federal Right of Publicity,” (December 2020)
- Faculty, American Intellectual Property Law Association Design Rights Boot Camp (August 2019 and September 2020)
- Speaker (General Session), “Social Media: Where is it Going, and Can We Ethically Get There?” International Trademark Association Annual Conference, Barcelona (May 2017)
- Speaker, “Ethics in Social Media Controversies,” Intellectual Property Owners Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL (September 2015)
Selected Publications:
- “Trademarks and the Brain: Neuroscience and the Processing of Non-Literal Language,” The Trademark Reporter, Vol. 112, Issue 4 (July-August 2022) (with Sandra M. Virtue, PhD)
- “Important New Laws Will Have Ripple Effect for IP Owners, Practitioners,” Indiana Lawyer (April 2021) (with Lou Perry)
- “How to Find and Protect Your Own Hidden Trademarks,” National Law Review (February 2021)
- “Will New FTC Endorsement Guidelines Make a #Hashtag of Influencer Advertising?” National Law Review (March 2020)
- “New U.S. Counsel Rule for Foreign TMs Promises Sea Change,” Law360 (July 2019) (with Melissa Dillenbeck)
- “The Privacy Wars: Too Much, Too Little, or Too Late?” Bloomberg (May 23, 2019) (with Katherine Armstrong)
- “Tech Brings Authentication Challenges in Ad and IP Cases,” Law360 (March 2019) (with Tore DeBella)
- Contributing author, Telecommunications Law Answer Book, Practicing Law Institute (2014 – 2021) (chapter on social media)
- Contributing author, Consumer Protection Law Developments, American Bar Association (2009)
- Contributing author, Copyright Law and Policy in a Networked World, National Association of College and University Attorneys (2007)
- “Of PACS and Trolls: How the Patent Wars May Be Coming to a Hospital Near You,” The Health Lawyer, Vol. 19, No. 1 (October 2006) (with Ira M. Kalina)
- “False Advertising Claims: Proceedings at the NAD,” National Law Journal (January 1, 2006)
- “March Madness: Dual Use Reverse Confusion and the First Amendment,” Selected Legal Papers, Vol. XVI, No. 1, American Intellectual Property Law Association, (April 1997)