Michael La Porte

We help inventors, patent owners, and other businesses protect and exploit their Intellectual Property in a variety of ways, including obtaining federal rights, contacting businesses seeking to use (or already using) your Intellectual Property, and taking enforcement steps where necessary.

We also keep the playing field free for good ideas, by defending attacks against your business lines.


Michael R. La Porte is a partner of Flachsbart & Greenspoon, LLC, who counsels clients through trademark, copyright, and patent-related issues. He helps monetize inventors’ intellectual property assets through licensing and litigation and also defends against charges of infringement. Mr. La Porte brings over fifteen years of experience to help clients, having handled trademark, copyright, patent and trade secret litigation in federal courts in Chicago and throughout the country. Mr. La Porte has represented numerous clients in the online/web, software, and consumer-goods industries, and enjoys the challenge of learning new technologies and industries.

Flachsbart & Greenspoon strongly believes in providing common-sense and affordable representation to clients. Against the odds, we recently obtained a substantial jury verdict for a client in the automotive industry on an inducement theory of infringement of a twice-dependent patent claim under the doctrine of equivalents. When we take on a new matter, we commit to fight for your rights to the end. As a former colleague and current in-house counsel put it, Mr. La Porte “is someone who can get the job done. He's smart, talented, and committed.”

Mr. La Porte is available for free initial consultations to evaluate your case. He and his partners represent clients on hourly and contingent-fee bases. We also have employed hybrid and other alternative billing arrangements where appropriate.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. La Porte practiced at the law firms of Foley & Lardner and Wildman Harrold Allen & Dixon. He also served as law clerk to the Honorable David H. Coar of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Mr. La Porte received his law degree from Illinois Institute of Technology - Chicago-Kent College of Law (J.D., high honors, 1996), where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, a member of the Moot Court Honor Society, and a senior associate for the Chicago-Kent Law Review. He was graduated from Williams College (B.A., 1991) with a bachelor's degree in economics.