Intellectual Property Counseling & Prosecution

Intellectual property is the lifeblood of businesses in diverse industries from technology, pharmaceuticals, and health care, to manufacturing, automotive, and franchise. Ensuring that your company’s IP is properly safeguarded through patents, copyrights and trademarks—no matter the size of your organization or the industry you're in—is an often high-volume and high-stakes undertaking. You need a partner with legal acumen and the service delivery firepower to keep up with the speed of your business.

HOW WE HELP

Our Intellectual Property practice offers clients powerful protection for their most valuable assets. Backed by the resources of one of the nation’s premier law firms, our veteran team of IP attorneys represents a diverse roster of clients, from Fortune 500 and multinational corporations to fast-growing start-ups. With broad experience in all areas of intellectual property law, we help our clients identify and secure their intellectual property rights, exploit them in the marketplace and enforce or defend them anywhere they do business.

We have helped thousands of companies to develop, protect and/or monetize their intellectual property assets. Over the years, we have worked in industries and technologies spanning consumer goods to retail, semiconductor fabrication, computer software, business-methods, Internet technologies, telecommunications, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals.

Members of our team have negotiated a broad range of agreements relating to trademarks, copyrights and patents, including licenses, alliances and transfers, and a host of others involving electronic commerce.

OUR SERVICES

Patent Prosecution. The intellectual property attorneys at Seyfarth know that successful protection of new technologies requires a comprehensive strategy that contemplates a company’s current position in the marketplace, short- and long-term business objectives, and the emerging technological landscape, among other things. To that end, we advise clients on optimal strategies for procuring patents and managing their portfolio. We also counsel on regulatory exclusivity and provide opinions with regard to patentability, freedom-to-operate, validity, and potential infringement. Our attorneys work closely with a global network of jurisdictionally-specialized counsel well versed in the laws and regulations of all the major patent countries, and have experience preparing and filing international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Specifically we:

• Prepare and prosecute patent applications, domestically and internationally
• Draft and negotiate licensing and confidentiality agreements
• Integrate patent protection with trademark, copyright, and trade secrets
• Draft and negotiate technology transfer and research and development agreements
• Conduct intellectual property audits and due diligence for mergers and acquisitions
• Coordinate maintenance of patents pursuant to overall business objectives

Trademark Prosecution. We make sure our clients are in the best possible position at every phase of the trademark process, which means helping them to develop a trademark, service mark, or trade name; obtaining clearance and proper licensing of that mark; and thinking ahead to identify potential points of infringement. Our national presence allows us to better evaluate appropriate jurisdictions in which to seek protection and ultimately develop more comprehensive trademark protection and enforcement programs for our clients. We also provide other trademark transactions and counseling services. For our trademark clients we:

• Prepare and prosecute trademark applications, domestically and internationally
• Handle the trademark aspects of corporate acquisitions, including due diligence and negotiation of asset purchase agreements
• Resolve trademark disputes with settlement and co-existence agreements
• Conduct trademark portfolio audits and appraisals
• Record trademarks with US Customs and assist in the interception of counterfeit merchandise
• Conduct trademark training programs for attorneys, paralegals, and marketing professionals

Copyright Transactions and Counseling. Whether the subject matter is software, a literary creation, or cutting-edge multimedia content, clients look to Seyfarth to protect and enforce their copyrights in an increasingly complex marketplace where digital copying of these assets is all too easy and rampant.

We strategically review and assess the value of our clients’ copyrightable material and, if appropriate, prepare and prosecute a copyright registration through the US Copyright Office. Our attorneys also understand the value of legally using creativity owned by others. We regularly counsel clients on license compliance matters, fair use of copyrighted materials, and we negotiate and draft license agreements on behalf of, among others, technology, medical, and educational institutions.