Wade Savoy

Partner
Email: wsavoy@patentgc.com

Wade Savoy is both the former Assistant General Counsel of Intellectual Property for Walmart, where he served as head of Walmart’s intellectual property group, and a former law professor, who focused on the rapidly changing intersection of law and technology. These two positions capture key aspects of his approach for clients: a genuine love and deep knowledge of the law coupled with an intensely practical, business-oriented perspective that leverages his experience to help his clients achieve their goals, including

selecting and clearing trademarks
registering trademarks domestically and internationally
managing global portfolios of brands
registering copyrights
making fair use of copyrighted works
enforcing rights, including UDRP domain name disputes
responding to claims of infringement and managing litigation
licensing and assigning rights
training

Wade entered the practice of law for one reason: to help creative people be creative. He has been fortunate to work with an incredibly broad spectrum of creative people, from one of the world’s largest companies to Internet startups with little more than a foosball table and a good idea, from clients designing sneakers and websites to clients branding laundry detergent and financial services, from media companies trying to leverage their content online to major telecommunications companies trying to change their images. Wade’s current clients span a wide range of industries, from robotics to consumer products, including

Wade was the first in-house intellectual property attorney hired by Walmart, and he helped to grow the group to more than a dozen people. He oversaw and brought in-house an international portfolio of over 10,000 trademark applications and registrations, including many brands that gross billions of dollars each year. He handled multi-million dollar transactions. He analyzed claims of infringement based on cutting-edge technology. He developed and conducted the first mandatory intellectual property training program for thousands of Walmart employees and traveled to China and back to create programs to review thousands of products to avoid intellectual property issues. In Walmart’s intense, bottom-line environment, Wade honed his ability to efficiently provide real-world solutions to real-world problems.

Before joining Walmart, Wade was with the intellectual property group of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart (now K&L Gates), where he formed and headed an Internet enforcement team that specialized in protecting clients’ rights online, including hundreds of cease and desist actions and UDRP complaints. He enjoyed both an active litigation practice, frequently being included on litigation teams for his subject-matter expertise and writing abilities, and a varied corporate practice, which ranged from reviewing and clearing rights to hundreds of logos, team names, and cheerleader outfits for a new football league to performing due diligence for the sale of a cooking school.

Wade was recruited to Texas Wesleyan School of Law (now Texas A&M University School of Law) to help inaugurate its new Center for Law and Intellectual Property. There, Wade concentrated his teaching and research on the tension between new technology and the law, and he created courses covering new media and licensing. Wade also focused on reaching out to the local community, including museums, artists, and business organizations, to offer free intellectual property training, giving students an opportunity to research, prepare, and give public presentations, with an emphasis on translating legal concepts into understandable terms.

Wade received his B.A. in English, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Louisiana State University and his J.D. and Certificate of Intellectual Property, with High Honors, from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent School of Law.