Intellectual Property

We understand that our clients’ most valuable assets are often their intellectual property, and our Intellectual Property practice group offers clients a comprehensive range of legal services for enforcing, defending, commercializing, exploiting and acquiring all types of intellectual property. We have considerable depth in the full array of intellectual property rights, including patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Our vibrant practice encompasses skilled practitioners in patent preparation/prosecution and patent counseling, as well as attorneys with deep and diverse expertise with copyrights, trademarks, and domain names. We tailor our approaches based on our clients’ needs, and give practical advice with respect to asserting, defending against, or settling intellectual property claims.

Our intellectual property transactions practice handles complex business deals and we have significant experience in structuring, drafting and negotiating transactions that include mergers and acquisitions; licenses and cross-licenses; strategic collaborations, corporate partnerships and joint ventures; technology arrangements; manufacturing and supply agreements; commercial transactions; research and development agreements; marketing and promotion agreements; consulting and services agreements; and outsourcing. We employ a goal-oriented approach, and help clients prioritize among the many issues that arise during the course of negotiations. Working closely with our Media, Entertainment, and Communications group, we serve as strategic advisors to our clients. For example, we help companies evaluate and manage intellectual property risks; provide key advice on intellectual property protection and enforcement programs; work with clients in the restructuring of intellectual property assets; and help guide companies through branding and licensing strategies.

Our trademark attorneys handle the full range of trademark matters: counseling and assisting clients with trademark searching and selection, preparing, filing, and prosecuting U.S. trademark applications for our clients, and assisting clients in maintaining their existing registrations.  We also have substantial experience internationally, managing our clients’ global trademark portfolios with the assistance, as necessary, of foreign counsel. On the transactional side, our attorneys have significant expertise preparing, reviewing, and negotiating trademark licensing agreements. On the prosecution and enforcement side, we routinely resolve disputes for our clients via cease and desist letters or through negotiated settlements, but we also bring years of collective experience litigating in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and in federal court, should litigation become necessary. In addition, we have significant experience with domain name disputes and have advised clients on the new Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) Program.

Our intellectual property attorneys regularly counsel and assist clients with all aspects of copyright law. We help our clients obtain the necessary rights for any given transaction, and routinely prepare and negotiate a wide variety of copyright-related agreements concerning ownership of and licensing of copyrights, including publishing agreements, distribution agreements, work-for-hire agreements, assignments, and other transactional documents.  We regularly advise clients on complicated copyright issues, including digital media and Internet issues, permissible uses of content, and fair use analyses. Our attorneys also assist with copyright registration matters and review draft works prior to publication or broadcast, advising on any necessary revisions or rights that should be obtained and assisting clients in securing those rights. We frequently handle copyright disputes and work closely with our clients in an effort to resolve disputes in the most efficient manner, whether through a negotiated settlement or litigation. We are also accustomed to conducting due diligence reviews of copyrighted assets for clients.  With years of experience litigating copyright disputes in federal court, our attorneys have handled numerous cutting-edge, precedential copyright cases and have managed large-scale copyright enforcement efforts.