Isaac S. Crum

Isaac S. Crum is a member of Messner Reeves’ intellectual property group.

Isaac focuses his practice on advising clients as to how to develop, protect, and enforce intellectual property rights.  He frequently is consulted by, and guides, successful businesses dealing with knockoffs on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy. In so doing, he works with his clients to develop a wholistic approach which balances developing an enforceable intellectual property portfolio with the realities of e-commerce in the globalized 21st century.

“After employees, intellectual property is often a businesses’ single greatest asset,” says Isaac, who adds that companies who ignore this “do so at their peril.”  “Consumer lists, product designs, methods of manufacture, technology licensing, brand development and brand recognition—each of these elements of a successful business, have intellectual property law at their heart.”  “It is unfortunate,” Isaac laments, “that all too often clients call ‘after-the-fact,’ and after their product is already being knocked-off by a dozen cheaper competitors and when options are limited.  These ‘after-the-fact’ calls can be sobering.  It’s always better when I am able to walk through a clients’ business and products on the front end and can gameplan with the client how to protect their market space before problems arise.”

In addition to his consulting practice, Isaac has spent the last thirteen years litigating intellectual property cases across the country for clients of every size, from $2 trillion “Fortune 10” companies to mom-and-pop stores and pre-revenue startups.  These cases have run the gamut from semiconductor cases before the International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., trademark and patent cases in Arizona and the Ninth Circuit, cancellation and opposition proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board, and appeals to the Federal Circuit and United States Supreme Court.   Isaac has virtually seen it all.

When taking on new matters, Isaac finds that in addition to providing legal advice and zealously litigating cases, much of the work of being an intellectual property lawyer revolves around identifying and establishing business-centered goals and realistic business-based “win conditions.”  “No one wants to spend more money litigating a case than it is worth.  So, much of my time is spent strategizing how to pivot between aggressively going after infringers to creatively structuring settlements and licensing agreements that maximize my client’s revenue and are based on the needs of a client or the status of a particular matter.”

Prior to attending law school, Isaac earned a degree in computer engineering at the University of Arizona. A native Tucsonan and die-hard Wildcat fan, Isaac remained at the University of Arizona for law school.  Upon graduation from law school, Isaac practiced for six years in Washington, D.C. for two top-fifty international law firms before coming back home to Arizona to raise his family.