Patents
Not all patents are created equal. In fact, many patents have practically no enforcement value. We believe that the role of a patent attorney involves more than just obtaining a patent, but to ensure that the patent is enforceable and, hence, valuable. Having worked for large law firms, international corporations, and sophisticated medical device startups, we know how to draft patents and build patent portfolios so that they will have maximum enforcement value.
We are also experts in patent claims and patent claims scope analysis and can assist in evaluating your own patents or the patents of your competitors. Whether you are an in-house lawyer, businessman, investor, engineer, or an inventor, we provide a wide range of services to allow you to evaluate patents, including due diligence, non-infringement opinions, invalidity opinions and freedom to use studies.
We also provide litigation assistance and support to corporations and other law firms.
We assist clients with design around services and competitive analysis in a wide variety of technical fields, including software, electrical, oil and gas exploration, and medical devices.
Design Protection
A design is an outward appearance of a product or package.
Rights in designs are acquired through a variety of interrelated, but often conflicting, intellectual property laws – especially in an international context. For instance, most countries allow for the registration of industrial designs. The U.S. does not have a registration process for industrial designs. However, a similar concept to industrial designs can be found “stuck” into U.S. patent laws. The concept is called a “design patent.”
Design patents can provide powerful protection at a fraction of the cost of a traditional patent.
At the same time, designs or certain aspects of designs may also qualify under copyright, trademark, and trade dress laws.
We can assist you in obtaining protection for your designs under a variety of U.S. and international laws, including obtaining design patents, international industrial design registrations, trademarks and copyrights.
Business & Tech Law
Intellectual property protection is more than obtaining patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Real intellectual property protection ensures that all of your intellectual property (and consequently your business value) does not walk out the door.
Intellectual property laws are often confusing – even to many business lawyers. Intellectual property laws are not branches of one heterogeneous legal tree, but a collection of a wide variety of legal species. Hence, they often have conflicting and counter-intuitive principles. For instance, copyrights created by employees are automatically owned by the employers. In contrast, patent rights created by employees are owned by the employee – unless there is a pre-existing employment contract to the contrary.
With over 20 years of experience, we can provide you with a wide range of legal and consulting services, including general business counseling, training, procedures, contracts, and IP license negotiations to ensure that you are not unknowingly giving away your valuable intellectual property to others.
