A company’s intellectual property may be its greatest capital asset. As the value of these assets has grown, IP litigation has increased proportionately. In the past decade, product innovation and the Internet have launched an explosion of new products, industries and companies, and protecting ideas and supporting a company's right to create and market competing goods and services have emerged as critical parts of virtually every business strategy.
Defending and protecting a company’s most critical asset – in and out of the courtroom – requires not only knowledge of the law and the many complex technical issues that often surround an IP matter, but also the skills and resources to manage large and complex commercial litigation, particularly when protecting those valuable assets turns toward trial.
To maximize and preserve IP value, our attorneys work closely with our clients to understand the impact a company’s data, trade secrets, computer code, customer information, and other assets have on business valuation and operations. We handle matters relating to the licensing and protection of copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and are always available to advise our clients on the best means of protecting these valuable intellectual property assets. We also draft noncompetition and trade secret protection agreements between employers and employees, and between licensors and licensees.
We help to protect that value by providing legal advice and counsel on copyright, trademark and trade secret protection and by defending our clients against trade secret disclosures, infringement, misuse, and other IP issues. We also handle the litigation and defense of business-related torts such as tortious interference, misappropriation and disparagement, unfair competition, as well as Consumer Protection Act and Lanham Act claims, which routinely accompany IP litigation.
Though we do not hesitate to go to trial for our clients when necessary, we understand that litigation is not the only means of resolving IP disputes. We advise our clients on a full range of effective dispute alternatives, including licensing, cross-licensing, joint venture negotiations and alternative dispute resolution.
We take pride in our ability to advise clients on finding business solutions to legal disputes. To us, avoiding intellectual property litigation for our clients is our paramount goal; we believe that our clients, whether they stand as plaintiffs or defendants, should resort to IP litigation only when there is no other avenue to their end goal. But when litigation becomes inevitable, we protect or clients and their interests to the fullest, whether in prosecuting or defending against IP and related claims.