Intellectual Property Practice
In law, intellectual property (IP) is an umbrella term for various legal entitlements which attach to certain names, written and recorded media, and inventions. The holders of these legal entitlements may exercise various exclusive rights in relation to the subject matter of the IP. The term intellectual property reflects the idea that this subject matter is the product of the mind or the intellect.
Intellectual property laws confer a bundle of exclusive rights in relation to the particular form or manner in which ideas or information are expressed or manifested, and not in relation to the ideas or concepts themselves. The term "intellectual property" denotes the specific legal rights which authors, inventors and other IP holders may hold and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.
Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of subject matter, although in some cases there is a degree of overlap. Copyright may subsist in creative and artistic works (e.g. books, movies, music, paintings, photographs, and software) and give a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time (historically a period of between 10 and 30 years depending on jurisdiction, more recently the life of the author plus several decades). A patent may be granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder a right to prevent others from practicing the invention without a license from the inventor for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application). A trademark is a distinctive sign which is used to distinguish the products or services of different businesses. An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object (e.g. spare parts, furniture, or textiles). A trade secret (which is sometimes either equated with, or a subset of, "confidential information") is secret, non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business, public disclosure of which may sometimes be illegal.
How We Serve Our Clients
We represent both emerging and established businesses in establishing and protecting their intellectual property rights. To that we work closely with clients to register copyrights and trademarks where appropriate to ensure the greatest protection under the law. Such registration also provides notice to the general public of our clients rights in such intellectual property to protect their brand identity and established good-will. We also work diligently to protect our clients' rights through the negotiation and drafting of confidentiality agreements and nondisclosure agreements to protect our clients' tradesecrets. Licensing agreements are also an integral part of our intellectual property practice whereby we not only provide our clients a means to financially benefit from granting others the right to utilize their intellectual property, but through skillful negotiation and crafting such agreement, we endeavor to provide our clients the maximum protection under the law
Working so closely with clients in our diverse corporate practice, we develop long-term relationships in which our attorneys serve as trusted legal and business advisors throughout the life of the corporation. Because many of our clients are small privately-held companies without the resources to employ a staff of attorneys like many Fortune 500 companies, we can serve as virtual in-house counsel, serving our clients' needs on a daily basis.
