Acknowledgments

• Author: David R. Gerk - John M. Fleming
• Pages: xvii-xvii

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Contents

Acknowledgments

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you

grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt

and die.

—Plato

No matter how independent we all like to believe we are, very few of

life’s accomplishments are possible without help from others, whether

directly or indirectly. Along those lines we would like to acknowledge

not only those who directly made this book possible, but those who nour-

ished our growth as people and professionals and helped us to even be in

a position to turn this book into a reality. First we would like to thank a

few of the people in our careers who have given us opportunities or

trusted in our abilities when it perhaps would have been just as easy, if

not easier, to not give us a chance. Thanks to Paul Raptis, Roger Schechter,

Beth Stein, Robert Katz, Bob Altherr, Joseph Potenza, Gary Fedorochko,

Ross Dannenberg, Michael K. Myers, Michael W. Plesniak, and Mary

Critharis. We would also like to thank the ABA and the ABA Section of

Intellectual Property Law especially, including Jeffrey Salyards, Amy

Mandel, and Amelia Stone. Additionally, thanks goes to our colleagues,

partners, and friends at the law firm of Banner & Witcoff, Ltd., for their

support, insight, and patience. Thanks also to Helene Liwinski for her

insightful input on trademarks. A very special thanks goes to our fami-

lies—Ron Gerk, Barb Gerk, Dana Gerk, Madeline Saban, Mack Fleming,

Libby Fleming, and Katie Carmona—for all the ways they have helped

and supported us through the years. Last, but certainly not least, we

would like to thank our wives, Katie Sharpee and Candace Fleming, and

John’s children, Colton and Cooper, for their seemingly endless patience,

understanding, and support as we worked late into the night, weekends,

and in between various obligations. Without their gentle reminders to

continue forging ahead and their willingness to let us write when we

should have been helping them on many of life’s tasks, we could have

never finished this book.

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