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Fish & Richardson

law firm

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ1420539
Source-derived summary

Fish & Richardson P.C. is a global patent, intellectual property, and commercial litigation law firm with more than 400 attorneys and technology specialists across the US and Europe. Fish is active in both patent litigation and patent prosecution services among Fortune 100 companies. Fish has been named the U.S. Firm of the Year in three categories: Patent Contentious, Life Sciences IP Litigation, and PTAB by Managing Intellectual Property (MIP) magazine.

Founded in Boston in 1878, Fish represented numerous American inventors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers. The firm now has 14 offices in the United States, Germany, and China.

In February 2020, the company named John Adkisson as president and CEO.

Recognition

Band 1 US Rankings for IP and ITC, Chambers Global, 2015-2021

IP Practice Group of the Year, Law360, 2012 – 2016, 2018 2020 – 2021

Top National Ranking – Patent Litigation, IAM Patent 1000, 2012 – 2021

Top 10 Firm, Associate Career Development, Chambers USA, 2021

IP Boutique Firm of the Year, Managing Intellectual Property, 2021

Top Trademark Firm, World Trademark Review, 2011-2021

ITC Firm of the Year, Managing Intellectual Property, 2019-2021

Number 1 Law Firm at the PTAB, Managing Intellectual Property, 2018–2021

One of America's Top Trusted Corporate Law Firms – IP, Forbes, 2019

Hall of Fame, Corporate Counsel, 2019

US Patent Litigation Firm of the Year, IAM & WTR Global IP Awards, 2019

Appellate Hot List, The National Law Journal, 2011–2019

IP Firm of the Year, National Impact Case of the Year, Benchmark Litigation, 2019

Notable alumni

Bainbridge Wadleigh, partner from 1878 to 1885.

Frederick Perry Fish, Founder of the firm and president of American Telephone & Telegraph Corporation from 1901 to 1907.

James J. Storrow, partner from 1890 to 1900, during which time the firm was known as Fish, Richardson & Storrow.

Editorial summary

“Fish & Richardson” enters the record as law firm. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fish, Richardson and firm can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1878, 2020, 2015, 2021—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1878. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Fish, Richardson and firm.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Fish & Richardson” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Fish, Richardson and firm provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1420539. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1878, 2020, 2015 and 2021.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Fish & Richardson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Fish & Richardson primary sources, Fish & Richardson archive and Fish research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Fish & Richardson”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Fish & Richardson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.