Jeffery J. Makeever is a shareholder and chair of the firm's Intellectual Property Practice and a managing partner of the firm's Rockford office. He serves a wide range of corporate clients in a variety of industries including aerospace, consumer products and components, industrial equipment, medical research and equipment, C4ISR and warfare systems and consumer software.

Jeff's clientele includes multinational clients headquartered in both the United States and Europe. He frequently functions as a trusted advisor to senior management and as part of his client's in-house counsel team, providing services such as forward planning and the training of engineering and marketing personnel.

Jeff's own significant experience as a design and research engineer in the aerospace industry, together with his background as in-house counsel, has given him a special understanding of the needs and challenges of his corporate clients. 

An experienced and enthusiastic presenter, Jeff frequently speaks to business and technical audiences on a variety of intellectual property topics of practical importance. His recent audiences have included the International Television Association, the Illinois Small Business Administration and the Society for Technical Communication. During his career, Jeff has provided counsel and guidance to individual inventors. 

Representative Matters and Experience

• Helping a Midwest corporation utilize its intellectual property to survive a threat of being replaced on a long-term, lucrative contract, thereby avoiding layoffs and a significant economic impact not only to the client, but also to the local community
• Maximizing his clients' bottom line profits by securing U.S. rights and preserving international rights on new products without delaying marketing and product release
• Using his several years of engineering design experience, Jeff frequently works closely with engineering design personnel to understand the patent landscape of others and to help the engineers preempt costly design changes after product release, which could otherwise result from infringement of existing intellectual property