Intellectual Property

When the lifeblood of our clients’ businesses is in their intellectual property, we help identify and protect those assets.

Trademarks

Our deep experience counseling entrepreneurs, emerging businesses, and established companies on the intricacies of trademark law allows us to effectively protect their brands and competitive positions within the marketplace.

Where brand names and logos are concerned, we assist businesses in selecting, clearing, registering, maintaining, policing, and enforcing rights in trademarks, service marks, and trade dress. We regularly represent clients before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in proceedings involving trademark applications and registrations and in federal and state courts on trademark infringement cases.

On the transactional side, we negotiate trademark licenses and assignments across an array of industries and businesses. When disputes escalate, we litigate trademark cases in federal and state courts.

Our team’s experience includes securing the first sensory “touch” trademark in the U.S., demonstrating our position at the cutting edge of developments in the field.

Copyrights

For creative works – whether fiction or nonfiction, fine art, music, screenplays, multimedia presentations, software, database configurations, or other original works of authorship – we counsel clients in protecting these works under copyright law and help register works with the Copyright Office.

We also negotiate and draft work-made-for-hire agreements with independent contractors to ensure that copyright ownership vests with the appropriate party, and we engage in assessments of fair use under copyright law to help our clients assess risk in using third-party content. Should litigation become necessary, we handle copyright infringement cases in federal courts. In addition, we have experience defending “copyright troll” litigation and are familiar with the strategies and techniques used to prey upon unwary defendants.

Trade Secrets

Nearly all businesses maintain certain valuable information as trade secrets. Through best practices, we guide companies to recognize and secure this vital information. We routinely draft and negotiate non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements enabling businesses to share information without compromising trade secrets. Should misappropriation of trade secrets occur, we take swift legal action in courts to mitigate harm.