Nicole E. Reifman is a partner at MBHB and co-Chair of the firm’s Mechanical & Materials Practice Group. Clients ranging from start-ups to multinational companies seek Ms. Reifman’s support in obtaining, evaluating and enforcing intellectual property rights.

Ms. Reifman advises clients in all phases of patent preparation and prosecution. Applying her academic and prior work experience in mechanical engineering, she reliably guides clients in a wide range of mechanical, materials science, and electromechanical technologies, including:

• Automotive diagnostics and engines
• Piping materials
• Medical and surgical fields (including hospital beds, catheters, stents, neuro and spine surgical tools and implants, wound care, and breast pumps)
• Ultrasound technology
• Consumer products

Ms. Reifman has extensive experience working with clients to establish internal processes for identifying patentable ideas. Clients seek her counsel on the procurement, enforcement and licensing of intellectual property rights, including trademark, trade secret and copyright issues. She actively manages trademark portfolios and develops brand-building and brand-protection strategies for her clients.

Ms. Reifman enjoys working closely with in-house counsel to ensure that her clients’ intellectual property strategies help them meet their business goals related to competitive strategy, international growth, financial results and more.

Prior to joining MBHB, Ms. Reifman worked as a design engineer at Caterpillar Inc., Caterpillar France S.A., and Stryker Medical.

Patent Prosecution Experience:

• Oversaw, developed and managed patent portfolio for a multinational health care services company.
• Assisted companies with evaluating portfolios of issued patents and pending patent applications related to medical devices in connection with the companies’ acquisitions of the portfolios.
• Authors opinions related to infringement, non-infringement, validity, invalidity and unenforceability for organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies.
• Manages freedom-to-operate efforts for mechanical products, including medical device, healthcare, and storage and security products.

Trademark Experience:

• Oversees, develops, manages and enforces a trademark portfolio for one of the largest national media broadcast corporations.
• Counsels Grammy-nominated performing artists in connection with numerous trademark matters.
• Develops comprehensive branding strategies for health care startups.

Litigation Experience:

• Represents one of the world’s largest multinational pharmaceutical companies in medical device litigation matters before the U.S. District Courts.
• Counsels a food manufacturer in connection with trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition and breach of contract disputes.

• International Trademark Association
• Chicago Bar Association
• University of Illinois MechSE Alumni Board

• Illinois Super Lawyers – Rising Star
• Best Lawyers in America (2024)

“U.S. Patent Practice – What Every European Practitioner Should Understand,” Management Forum, biannually from 2011-present

Northwestern Annual Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property Symposium, recurrent panel speaker