Mr. Duston’s colleagues and opponents alike have praised both his creativity and his tenacity as a trial lawyer. Mr. Duston has litigated patent infringement claims involving diagnostic immunoassays utilizing monoclonal antibodies, hydraulic fittings for aerospace applications, implantable silicone devices for reconstructive surgery, and aluminum alloys used to construct wing surfaces of commercial passenger jets, to name just a few of the areas of technology with which Mr. Duston is experienced. He has tried intellectual property disputes before both judges and juries, as well as handled injunction proceedings, arbitrations, mediations and appeals in such cases.
His work on behalf of clients in the medical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, computer, explosives, automotive, and metals industries, among others, has encompassed not only patent litigation, but also trade secret disputes, the enforcement of non-competition agreements, trademark actions, claims of unfair competition, and contract and negligence claims relating to technology failures.
Mr. Duston has authored a number of articles in the areas of patent and trade secret litigation. He was recently voted a “Leading Lawyer in IP Litigation” by his peers. Earlier in his career, he was named by the Law Bulletin Publishing Company as one of "Forty Illinois Attorneys Under 40 to Watch,” a list of the State’s most talented and well-regarded lawyers.
An active participant in numerous professional and legal organizations, Mr. Duston is a member of the American Bar Association's Sections on Intellectual Property Law and Litigation, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Owners Association, the American Judicature Society, the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, and the Chicago Bar Association. He also serves as a member of the Chicago Bar Association's Judicial Evaluation Committee, as well as numerous committees of these other associations.
A graduate of Columbia University (B.A. 1984), he received his J.D. in 1987 from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board and an instructor in the Moot Court Program. While at Hastings, Mr. Duston externed as a Staff Attorney for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
