Patents
| Trademarks
| Copyrights|
Trade Secrets
Licensing
& Agreements|
Litigation
PATENTS
Patent protection may be
available for a new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition
of matter, or any new and useful improvement. Patent protection is not
available for abstract ideas, laws of nature (e.g., laws of gravity), and
natural phenomena.
Keep in mind
that patent protection may be available for your business methods, software,
and improvements to existing technologies.
Trenner Law Firm can
evaluate your innovations in view of existing technologies to determine what
aspects may be patentable. Trenner Law Firm can also help
you with all aspects of the patent application process, including preparing
and filing patent applications in the United States Patent Office,
responding to examiner rejections, and appealing the examiner’s decisions
when necessary.
Trenner Law Firm can also help secure patent rights in other
countries.
TRADEMARKS
Trademark protection may be
available for the name, tagline, and/or logo used to identify your goods or
services in commerce. You should avoid these common pitfalls:
-
Selecting a weak mark.
-
Selecting a mark that is
generic or descriptive of your goods or services.
-
Selecting a mark that is
confusingly similar to someone else’s mark.
-
Failing to fully and
accurately identify all of your goods and services in the trademark
application.
Trenner Law Firm can
guide you through the selection process to help your business identify
a strong trademark for your products or services. Once you have selected a
mark, Trenner Law Firm works with a professional search firm to help your
business avoid infringing on someone else's trademark rights.
Trenner Law Firm can help
you with all aspects of state and federal trademark registration, and advise
you on the proper use of your trademarks so that you continue to build the
strength of your trademark and do not lose important rights in it.
COPYRIGHTS
Copyright protection may be
available for original works of authorship that are fixed in a tangible
medium of expression. Protection is not available for facts, ideas, systems,
and methods, although protection may be available for the expression of
those facts or ideas.
Trenner Law Firm can help
you identify copyrightable materials, provide employment or contractor
agreements, and register your works with the Library of Congress.
TRADE SECRETS
Trade secret protection
may be available for developments that are capable of being maintained
secret. Protection is typically not available for developments that can be
reverse engineered or come to be publicly known by other means.
Trenner Law Firm can help
you identify trade secret materials, and help implement a trade secret
program to help ensure your trade secrets are maintained as trade secrets.
LICENSING
& AGREEMENTS
If you decide to sell,
license, or otherwise transfer some or all of the rights in your
intellectual property, you should have a qualified intellectual property
attorney assist in the negotiations and preparation of the appropriate
documents. It is important that you fully understand which rights are being
transferred, which rights are being retained, and the obligations both you
and the other party have to one another.
Trenner Law Firm can help
negotiate, prepare, and review licensing, technology transfer, and other
agreements.
LITIGATION
Most businesses don't want
to spend precious time and money resources
on litigation. Under some
circumstances, however, litigation is inevitable.
Trenner Law Firm works with
experienced litigators to enforce the rights in your intellectual property
against infringement/ misappropriation, and to defend against wrongful
accusations of infringement/ misappropriation.
