A Champion for Brand Names
and Civil Rights

When Miles Alexander came to work at Kilpatrick, Cody, Rogers, McClatchey & Regenstein in 1958 after a teaching stint at Harvard Law School, he joined Atlanta's largest firm. It had 14 lawyers.

At 83, he's still working there, only now the firm is called Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton and it has more than 600 lawyers around the world. In the interim, Alexander has become a nationally recognized intellectual property lawyer.

Because of his work and that of lawyers he teamed with, there's no such thing as Betty Crocker Paint. Domino's Pizza kept its name despite the Domino Sugar company, and Garbage Pail Kids no longer trash Cabbage Patch Kids. A book, “The Wind Done Gone,” survived attack from Margaret Mitchell's heirs. And the trademarked work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is protected from misuse.

In some cases, Alexander was invited in by the lead lawyer, such as William Needle on the Cabbage Patch suit. In some, Alexander assembled a team from his firm and helped litigate, assigning the lead role to others, such as Joseph Beck.