Our People

Vangelis Economou focuses largely on U.S. and foreign patents, trade secret issues and other IP related matters. His career began at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, where he worked as an Examiner in the Optoelectronic arts. Later he served as patent attorney for a major aerospace corporation. Van has been in private practice for over 20 years, assisting clients at several law firms, both in Chicago and in Washington, DC. He is fluent in Greek. Van obtained his Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School, where he now serves on the adjunct faculty. He earned a B.A Degree in Physics from the University of Chicago.

Carlynn B. Ferguson’s areas of practice include Copyright, Trademark, Unfair Competition and Anti-counterfeiting matters. She has experience assisting clients ranging from start-up companies, artists, and musicians to global corporations in protecting their intellectual property rights. Carlynn has a B.S. from Miami University and earned her J.D. from DePaul College of Law.

Dermot Horgan has worked closely with new start-up enterprises, medium-sized businesses and large Fortune 100 corporations, as well as with the state government on various issues, including product roll-outs, maintenance, enforcement, crisis management, IPO branding and trade identity issues. He has received national recognition for his skills, including being named for his outstanding service in a recent survey of General Counsel at the United States' largest corporations. Dermot earned his J.D. from DePaul College of Law, his Barrister-at-Law Degree from Kings Inns in Dublin and his BCL from University College Cork.

Dmitriy O. Makarov handles Anti-counterfeiting, Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Identity and Unfair Competition law matters. He is fluent in Russian and has an extensive background in business and computer technology. Dmitriy has a B.S. from North Central College and earned his J.D. from DePaul College of Law.

Mark A. Nieds focuses on U.S. and International Trademark Clearance and Prosecution, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Cancellations and Oppositions, Intellectual Property Litigation, Domain Name counseling, dispute resolution and other Internet-related matters, as well as Copyright and Unfair Competition matters. He has extensive litigation experience in both the state and Federal Courts. Mark earned his J.D., with honors, from Chicago-Kent College of Law. He has a B.A. from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Amanda M. Peluse concentrates on U.S. and International Trademark Prosecution, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Cancellations and Oppositions, Intellectual Property Litigation and Copyright and Unfair Competition matters. She has counseled clients ranging from small not-for-profit organizations to large corporations with worldwide Intellectual Property portfolios on a variety of issues including search and clearance of new and revised brand names and designs, conflict resolution, enforcement, and portfolio management. Amanda has a B.A. from Princeton University and earned her J.D. and Certificate in Intellectual Property, Art and Museum Law, from DePaul University College of Law.

Jeannine Rittenhouse concentrates on Copyright, Trademark, Trade Identity and Unfair Competition matters. She has experience assisting a wide variety of clients that ranges from counseling small businesses and independent artists and authors on the registration and enforcement of their intellectual property rights, to managing the maintenance of worldwide trademark and domain portfolios, as well as searching and advising on new marks for large global corporations. Jeannine has a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin and earned her J.D. from DePaul College of Law.

Gary Saposnik focuses on International and U.S. Trademark Prosecution, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Oppositions and Cancellations, Domain Name counseling and dispute resolution, Copyright registration and counseling, and other Internet-related aspects of intellectual property. He has had extensive civil litigation experience. Gary earned an LL.M. degree in Intellectual Property, with Honors, from The John Marshall Law School, he received a J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He is a former Chair of the International Trademark Committee and Vice-Chair of the U.S. Trademark Committee of the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago.

Sean Swidler concentrates on U.S. and international patent, trademark and copyright matters including prosecution of applications and related litigation in the federal and state courts, and in administrative proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. His practice also extends to domain name issues and advertising and promotions law. Sean earned his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa and his J.D. from the Chicago-Kent College of Law and regularly guest lectures at Columbia College in Chicago on a number of marketing and advertising topics.

The Qualities of Our People

• IpHorgan’s lawyers, paralegals and support personnel bring passion and belief to the matters entrusted to our firm.
• We are committed to building long-term relationships with our clients.  We consider our clients to be business partners.
• We develop a detailed knowledge of our clients’ businesses.
• We are advocates for our clients within the firm.
• We are always looking for ways to build relationships and make our clients more productive.
• We always seek to improve the quality of our services.