Hampton, II, Philip G.

Mr. Hampton, a multi-faceted IP law practitioner for more than 40 years and was recently named Polsinelli’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. In this role, he works collaboratively with Polsinelli’s leadership to set the firm’s diversity and inclusion strategy and translate those strategies into actionable and pragmatic plans and initiatives to meet the firm’s strategic goals. As a practicing attorney, Mr. Hampton focuses on patent and trademark litigation, patent and trademark counseling, trademark prosecution, and licensing and merchandising agreements based on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyrights as well as transactions related to the transfer of intellectual property pursuant to corporate acquisitions. He has been a court-appointed Special Master in patent infringement litigations and has served as an expert witness in numerous trademark disputes.

President Clinton nominated Phil Hampton to be the Assistant Commissioner for Trademarks where he was responsible for the Trademarks Office from 1994 – 1998. He had overall responsibility for trademark operations, focusing on restructuring the trademark registration process and improving the policies of the USPTO to align them more closely with the needs of its customers.  

Mr. Hampton has been devoted to making intellectual property a more inclusive area of the law.  He mentored numerous minority and women law students and young lawyers, served as former President of the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation (AIPLEF, now FADIPL), chair of the IP Section and a member of the Board of Governors of the National Bar Association, and teaches trademark law at Howard University School of Law, one of the five historically black law schools. In 2016, he has the inaugural recipient of the Diversity in Tech award presented by the IP Section of the National Bar Association.

Phil Hampton has been active in numerous bar associations, educational, political, professional, civic, and fraternal activities. He was on the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and was chair or co-chair of prominent committees of the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law. He served on the Visiting Committee of his law school alma mater and the Intellectual Property Advisory Board of the DePaul Law School.  He served as general counsel of the Washington Bar Association, the local African American bar association, and as a member of the boards of directors of Leadership Greater Washington and the Council for Court Excellence.  

In addition to his law degree from the University of Chicago, Mr. Hampton holds an S.M. and an S.B. in chemical engineering from MIT.