Trademark Attorney | "Federal trademark official part of iHub seminar"

By : Loralee Stevens
Source : http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com
Category : Trademark Attorney

If you’ve ever wondered about trademarks, how to get and protect them, there’s a free seminar tomorrow at the iHub in Rohnert Park.

Craig Morris, an expert in the field and long-time employee of the U.S.  Patent and Trademark Office, is flying out from Washington, D.C., to lead the panel.

“The USPTO just recently launched the public outreach program,” said Santa Rosa patent attorney Warren Dranit, who arranged the seminar. “There are lots of complicated issues around trademarks and the registration process, such as picking one that won’t get you sued.”

U.S. trademarks are different than patents and copyrights, and successfully defending one is largely a matter of choosing the right one to start with, he said.

In addition to Mr. Morris’s discussion, San Francisco intellectual property attorney Carole Barrett will be on hand to talk about international trademarks, which are obtained and defended differently.

Registering a trademark in the U.S. usually costs about $325 per category, or class, according to Mr. Dranit.

“If you choose a trademark for wine, that’s one class. But if your trademark also covers beer the registration fee is doubled to $650, or less if certain patent office guidelines are followed,” he said.

The seminar will cover how to choose a strong, legally defensible trademark, whether an attorney is needed for the registration process and how to select one, how to avoid trademark scams and what to do if you receive a “cease and desist” letter, among other issues.

Source : http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/65062/federal-trademark-official-part-of-ihub-seminar/

Trademark Attorney | "WINTER LLP, Launches New, Easy to Use Website for Registering Trademarks, Copyrights and Filing Corporations and LLC's"

By : Sbwire.com
Source : http://www.sbwire.com 
Category : Trademark Attorney

If you are an entrepreneur, designer, inventor or manufacturer of consumer products or services; or maybe you simply have a great idea for a product or service, you have probably spent countless hours scouring the internet looking for ways to trademark your product or service. Or, perhaps you have paid 1,000’s of dollars to traditional law firms trying to protect your brands. In either case, you may have encountered some very confusing web sites or law firms offering bewildering trademark services that don’t make much sense to someone who isn’t a trademark attorney.

That’s where WINTER LLP comes into play. They are a new style of law firm dedicated to providing everyday people, as well as entrepreneurs and successful businesses alike, with the practical backing of a traditional law firm, yet with a full service easy to use ecommerce website to help you register, maintain and protect your trademarks. In today’s world, not only is branding vital to the success of your product or service, as well as the value of your business, but you simply cannot afford to let a great branding idea “out of the bag” without first protecting it from potential theft.

Trademark attorney, Todd Winter, agrees. “I have managed hundreds of trademarks in over 80 countries, and I can tell you that it is absolutely crucial to the success of your products to have the proper legal protections in place ahead of launch. But you can’t stop there. You must be hyper vigilant about maintaining those trademark protections throughout the product’s entire life cycle. If you aren’t careful, your brand might get stolen right out from underneath you. That can be a loss of catastrophic proportions to the good will value of a company. We’ve also seen cases where confusingly similar trademarks are filed in order to try and “piggy back” on the fame of a successful brand.”

What makes http://www.WINTERLLP.com for filing trademarks truly unique from all the rest is its ease of use coupled with the fact that you will get an actual attorney working on your trademark filing who will be directly available to you throughout the entire process. Winter explains. “Our model is so simple and easy to use that not only can we work with a layperson who has an amazing idea for a new brand of products and needs a fast, easy and trustworthy solution to protect it before it hits the market, but we can also easily accommodate large businesses who need expert trademark attorneys to file, maintain or protect their entire global trademark portfolio. And we do it at a fraction of the price of traditional law firms.”

To that end, http://www.WINTERLLP.com is simply designed and focuses on making the trademark process as easy as possible, for any type of user, individuals or businesses. The site is also separated into distinct segments so you can easily see the different services the firm offers. Although you can view informational videos, most of the information is presented in simple black and white, can be easily read, and is simple to navigate with a large side menu. It’s purposely kept “low tech” to facilitate accurate and successful filings.

Aside from the simple design of http://www.WINTERLLP.com, WINTER LLP trademark attorneys provide you with actual legal advice throughout the entire process. A novel concept in today’s ecommerce world. Winter states. “We didn’t want to be like traditional intellectual property law firms. And we did not want to be like the plethora of non-attorney trademark sites out there today. That’s why we decided on the combination of an ecommerce site, a flat fee structure and traditional attorney/client consultation time built right in to the price. What can be better than that? It’s the best of both worlds. For a low flat fee, they get the ease and functionality of an ecommerce site, plus they have the ability to interact with a trademark attorney to successfully complete their trademark filing quickly and accurately, the first time.”

A flat fee for trademarking is an easy and inexpensive way to trademark your product or service and get the necessary documents you need to further your pursuit of manufacturing and distributing your product or service in commerce. Instead of merely paying an attorney’s retainer and hoping the final bill doesn’t overwhelm your budget, with WINTER LLP you pay a flat fee, and you know exactly what you will get.

Source : http://www.sbwire.com/press-releases/winter-llp-launches-new-easy-to-use-website-for-registering-trademarks-copyrights-and-filing-corporations-and-llcs-180375.htm

Trademark Attorney | "Former Google attorney is the head of the US Patent Office's Silicon Valley branch"

By : Bryan Bishop
Source : http://www.theverge.com
Category : Trademark Attorney 

Back in July the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced that it would be opening three new branches and former Google attorney Michelle K. Lee is heading up the Silicon Valley office. Google's former deputy general counsel and head of patent strategy, Lee spent nine years with the company before leaving earlier this year. According to Reuters, Lee confirmed she had accepted the position during a conference today at Santa Clara University.

Lee officially started her new position on November 5th, but prior to that had been serving on the USPTO's Patent Public Advisory Committee a group focused on evaluating the office's performance and policies. During her time at Google, she frequently voiced concerns about the state of the modern patent system and the need for reform, stating in one blog post that "Low-quality patents and escalating legal costs are currently hurting the ability of U.S. companies to compete globally." While the opening of the Silicon Valley branch itself seemed a step towards addressing the concerns many in the tech community have about the patent system, the fact that it will be headed up by someone with such a clear focus on reform sends a very promising signal.

Source : http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/16/3656542/former-google-attorney-head-us-patent-office-silicon-valley-branch

Trademark Attorney | "Law Offices of Gene Bolmarcich Launches Trademarks A To ® - Online Trademark Registration Service"

By : PRLEAP.COM  
Source : http://www.prleap.com 
Category : Trademark Attorney

The Law Offices of Gene Bolmarcich, Esq. is solo practice law firm specializing in a full spectrum of trademark related matters for a global clientele. I am proud to announce www.trademarksa2r.com - "Trademarks A To ®" - a flat fee trademark registration web-based service where all work is done by flat fee trademark attorney Gene Bolmarcich, with over 20 years experience prosecuting trademarks. Unlike every other attorney offering similar services for a flat fee, I include all of the work necessary to obtain a trademark registration with the USPTO. Every other site excludes from their flat fee so-called "substantive office action responses", and in some cases other work involved in filing evidence, affidavits and certain required documents that require significant work.

www.trademarksa2r.com is unique in that the $499 flat fee is guaranteed to be the limit on what a client will pay to obtain a registration. All other attorney based online services charge by the hour for the various types of substantive work involved in trademark prosecution.

Trademarks A To ® is provided via an easy to navigate and informative website on trademark law including an entertaining and informative blog. Clients initiate their trademark application by completing a simple form and paying the flat fee, which includes i) unlimited attorney consultation time, ii) comprehensive trademark searches (unlimited knock-out searches and up to two full comprehensive searches), iii) three classes of goods and services (as opposed to one, which is the competitive norm) and iv) all required prosecution and monitoring of the application to registration.

Visit www.trademarksa2r.com for more information and to see an exclusive chart that compares most major trademark registration services provided by attorneys and see why Trademarks A To ® is the lowest guaranteed flat fee trademark registration service on the Internet.

Source : http://www.prleap.com/pr/192751/

Trademark Attorney | "Lessons In Growing A Brand: The Chinese Are Coming"

By : Cheryl Conner
Source : http://www.forbes.com 
Category : Trademark Attorney

A prominent trademark attorney in Salt Lake City, Nicholas D. Wells, provided me with some interesting information recently about the power of brands. Economists can argue about when China’s GDP will surpass the U.S.  But for marketing types, Wells points out, the clearest indication of China’s growing economic power is not its raw GDP or import figures.  It is the strength of the brands Chinese companies are building.

Developing countries follow a pattern, Wells says.  They start out making products for others who outsource to take advantage of low-cost labor.  Those products are branded with the names of the outsourcing companies.  Familiar names like Reebok and Apple move their production from place to place to benefit from low costs: First Korea and Singapore, then China; now Vietnam.

When Reebok makes a shoe in Vietnam for $1 and sells it for $75, for example, the difference in value can nearly entirely be summed up as the “brand.”  Customers pay for the perceived value of the intellectual property Reebok has created. People don’t want shoes; they want Reeboks.  Or Nikes or Pumas or Adidas.

For companies like Apple, part of their value is created by technology (think patents).  But even for these companies, much of the perceived value is the brand.  (Remember, patents last 20 years, but brands last forever.)

Commodities must compete on price.  Strong brands yield higher profits.  Those profits, when reinvested, create new technologies, new products, and higher standards of living in the countries where the brands are owned.

Korea is no longer a capital of low-cost labor.  Now it’s the capital of Samsung and Hyundai.  The profits from selling Samsung-branded smartphones and tablets and microwaves stay in Korea, where they lead to new technologies, new products, and higher standards of living.

For several decades, China’s billion-plus population was a premier source of cheap labor.  Now that’s changing.  Why?  It’s simple — because China is developing its own brands.  Chinese companies reap higher profits, keep them in-country, and use them to create higher levels of technological innovation, education, industrial productivity, and economic power.

In every economy, this pattern starts with the major infrastructure players.  Major brands like China Mobile, Baidu, Wu Liang Ye, Suning, Pingan, and Bank of China are each valued at billions of dollars, yet most Americans have never heard of them.  But the next stage of this pattern continues as a huge number of smaller businesses develop loyal customer followings based on their brands and eventually become market leaders.  These small companies contribute to an economy’s strength and resilience.

Interestingly, in virtually every country Wells has studied, the number of applications for U.S. trademarks by companies from a given country tracks the volume of U.S. imports from that country.

U.S. imports from South Korea and U.S. trademark applications from South Korean companies both started near zero in 1970.  Both have followed a steady track upwards since then.

Singapore, another of the “Asian Tigers,” followed a similar track.

Brazil is interesting because a doubling of the number of annual U.S. trademark applications in 2000 anticipated a sharp five-year rise in U.S. imports from Brazil.

But the most interesting findings are from China.  U.S. imports from China have been growing steadily for decades.  But in the last 10 years, both U.S. imports from China and trademark applications from Chinese companies have turned sharply upward, with the number of trademark applications filed each year increasing ten-fold—1000%—between 2002 and 2011, while imports in 2012 will exceed $400 billion.

Thousands of smaller Chinese companies understand the power of brands.  They protect their brands in the U.S. in anticipation of reaping the profits and growth that used to be reserved for U.S. companies alone.

Entrepreneurs and brand-builders, be aware: The day is fast approaching that many Chinese brands will be as well-known to American consumers as Toyota, Samsung, Philips, and Gucci today.

Smart marketers are fully aware of the degree to which strong brands can influence strong profits. For example, America’s NASCAR is one of North America’s most highly regarded and widely recognized brands, even for consumers who have never watched or attended a NASCAR-sponsored event. More than 400 U.S. companies currently increase their profitability through formal affiliation with the NASCAR brand. Strong brands are worth big dollars.

The U.S. clearly “gets it”. And clearly, China is also now coming on strong.

Source : http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2012/11/08/lessons-in-growing-a-brand-the-chinese-are-coming/

Trademark Attorney | "Why Is It Important To Hire A Trademark Attorney And How Is It Beneficial To You?"

By : IPS Staff
Category : Trademark Attorney

It is important for you to hire a Trademark Attorney, if you are into any kind of trademark conflict. It is even more important if you are going for a court case.  

Protection of Trademark is important for all kinds of business specially the successful ones. Businesses that are doing well and have a good reputation always file a trademark application. Business savvy people use Trademark Attorney to protect their company’s trademark. If the logos, slogans and names are not trademarked they can be used by some other companies and benefit from it. So it is always important to trademark company’s logo, slogans, names and all the other important trade secrets.

United States has a trademark registration office that helps business to protect these types of intellectual properties. Although you can file this application via online form but it is advised to hire a Trademark Attorney. Why is it Important? It is important because attorneys know the process very well and can get you a very strong trademark protection.

There are many trademarks that are similar to yours and are not registered. However, these trademarks can trouble you in a long run and you may even have to fight for infringement lawsuit. A Trademark Attorney can help you by doing a complete search off all the registrations. The attorney will do a search of federal registrations, state registrations and “common law” unregistered trademarks. This comprehensive search is done prior to filing your application.

Some of the trademarks or products cannot be registered for trademark. In these situations a Trademark Attorney can help you describe your product in a way that can be registered.

A Trademark Attorney can help you get your trademark rights. An attorney can even go to the court to protect your trademark. It is also very important for you to hire an attorney who is empowered to protect your trademark.

Trademark Attorney | "Big Philadelphia law firm opens 1st mountain West office in Denver"

By : Heather Draper 
Source : http://www.bizjournals.com
Category : Trademark Attorney

Making its first foray into the mountain West, Philadelphia-based law firm Fox Rothschild LLP has opened an office in Denver with three former Bryan Cave LLP attorneys.

Fox Rothschild’s Denver location — in Suite 975 of Tabor Center at 1200 17th Street — brings the 500-lawyer firm’s office count to 17 nationwide, it said Thursday.

Attorneys Neal S. Cohen, Scott R. Bialecki and Mark L. Yaskanin, formerly with the Denver office of St. Louis-based Bryan Cave, all joined Fox Rothschild as partners.

They will broaden Fox Rothschild’s patent prosecution and patent litigation capabilities in particular, bringing extensive experience in intellectual property, litigation and regulatory guidance to the firm, Fox Rothschild said in a statement.

“We have long been interested in creating a Fox presence in Denver, which is a hub of innovation, and we are especially pleased to be opening this office with the team of Neal, Scott and Mark,” Mark L. Silow, firmwide managing partner, said in the statement.

“Denver is experiencing dynamic growth in many business sectors, and that, combined with the recent announcement by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that it would open a regional facility in the city, create tremendous opportunities for us and for our clients.”

Fox Rothschild has a nationwide team of more than 200 trial attorneys and a bench of IP services that includes more than 80 team members, many who possess doctoral degrees and other advanced training in various scientific and technical disciplines.

Cohen is an experienced trial attorney who handles litigation in the technology, probate, securities and financial services areas. He served as a member of the team that prepared the brief and oral argument in the Federal Circuit’s en banc rehearing of Phillips v. AWH, a significant patent claim construction case.

Bialecki is a registered patent attorney and former Federal Trade Commission attorney. He guides clients through regulatory and intellectual property issues involving such agencies as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, FTC, National Advertising Review Council and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Also a registered patent attorney, as well as a registered professional engineer, Yaskanin helps clients build their intellectual property portfolio and maximize their IP assets by providing a range of comprehensive services related to patents, patent procurement, litigation support, transactional due diligence, trademarks and copyrights. He has handled patents involving medical devices and equipment, energy-related systems and improvements, engineered materials, and tools and other mechanical systems and devices.

Source : http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2012/09/06/big-philadelphia-law-firm-opens-1st.html?page=all

Trademark Attorney | "The many marks of trademarks"

By : Mary Luros
Source : http://napavalleyregister.com
Category : Trademak Attorney

There are several different designations for trademarks and service marks, and they each mean something different. A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol and/or design that helps consumers identify the source of a product and distinguish it from products owned by others. A service mark identifies the source of a service instead of a product. People often use “trademark” to mean both trademarks and service marks. Companies also sometimes try to protect sounds, smells, and even tastes as non-traditional trademarks, although registering source-identifying taste is nearly impossible.

A letter “R” with a circle around it signifies that the name is a registered trademark, meaning that the mark is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or another country’s trademark office. An owner of a mark can apply for federal registration, although it’s not required. Registration puts the public on what’s called “constructive” or “legal” notice that the owner claims an ownership interest in the mark. The ® symbol may be used only after an applicant receives approval for a registration, not while an application is pending.

The letters “TM,” often in superscript, typically means that the owner does not have federal registration of the mark, but is claiming either common law rights or a state registration. Anyone can use this symbol if they wish to claim a mark as their own. No paperwork or permission is necessary to use the TM symbol.

The letters “SM,” again often in superscript, are used just like the letters “TM,” except they refer to an unregistered service mark identifying services instead of goods.

In your case, if you do not want to register your trademark, but you would like to protect your mark and claim it as your own, I recommend putting “TM” next to it. Be sure that your mark truly is unique — if someone else is using the same or similar name you might be infringing on their trademark.

Registering your mark provides many advantages, including putting the public on notice of your ownership of the mark. There is a legal presumption that if your mark is registered, you have the exclusive right to use the mark. This can be extremely important later if someone tries to sell a product that looks or sounds like your mark.

Source : http://napavalleyregister.com/business/columnists/mary-luros/the-many-marks-of-trademarks/article_8e818c78-f6e8-11e1-8f24-001a4bcf887a.html

Trademark Attorney | "How Can A Trademark Attorney Help You?"

By : IPS Staff 
Category : Trademark Attorney

Trademark Attorney plays an important role in your trademark registration process. It is always wise to hire an Attorney while you are planning to choose or register a trademark.

Trademark Attorney can help you to choose and register a trademark or a name. Trademark Lawyer are familiar and know the process inside out. It is their experience that makes them perfect in this area. They have been helping many businesses to protect and defend their name, logos or slogans. They are also familiar with all the legal tools that are effective and powerful.  
When you hire a Trademark Attorney he/ she will help you with the trademark search. It is a process to find out if there are prior similar trademark registrations or applications. This process can also help you find out if there is someone infringing your trademark.

After the trademark search process the Trademark Attorney will register your trademark. Registration of trademark is done with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Once you have registered the trademark you are protected under the trademark law. Once you have registered your trademark, no one can use it.
Other than trademark search and registration a Trademark Attorney can also help you with legal matters. These legal issues might be about trademark infringement. Trademark issues can arise either against you or against the party that might have infringed your trademark.  You can also get international protection via Trademark Attorney.

A Trademark Attorney can stop your trademark form being infringed. If there are some primary infringement by any other party the attorney puts them on notice. With this notice the infringement can be stopped at its early stages. This is another way you can protect your trademark and for this a trademark attorney is very important.

Negotiation is another area where a Trademark Attorney can be of importance to you. He/she can help you settle if there is any difference of opinion on the trademark registration. The Trademark Attorney can make dispute supplements for you or even get the payment that was promised before the settlement.

If there is a situation that you need to go to a court and the issue is to be settled by a judge you need a Trademark Attorney. An attorney will represent you in the court and prepare all the legal documentations for you. So, it is advised that you hire an Attorney for all your trademark needs.

Trademark Attorney | "Digital business: Naples company gets grant to expand finger-making company"

By : LIZ FREEMAN 
Source : http://www.naplesnews.com 
Category : Trademark Attorney 

Dreams keep coming true for Dan Didrick, the entrepreneur behind Naples-based Didrick Medical, whose life has been one fortuitous event after another.

His company, which assembles active-function artificial fingers for amputees, was one of 12 small businesses nationwide that each recently received a $250,000 grant from financial giant Chase in partnership with online business Living Social.

The grants enable small businesses to get to the next level of company growth.

"I will be able to come up with different sizes," Didrick, 42, said of his finger creations. "We can have inventory ready."

Didrick's six-page application to Chase and Living Social's grant program, Mission: Small Business, was among 70,000 applications submitted. He was presented with the grant Aug. 24 at a Chase branch in North Naples.

All the companies were judged on ability to demonstrate a feasible growth plan, creativity, passion for the business and desire to make a difference in the community.

"We were overwhelmed by the number of passionate small businesses that applied for the Mission: Small Business grant program and the number of consumers that showed their support," Richard Quigley, president of Business Card, Chase, said in a statement. "Every day, small businesses inspire us and fuel economic growth. (This grant program) is another way we can support small businesses for all they do in their local communities across the country."

For Didrick Medical, the community goes beyond being local. His community is people worldwide who have gone through the trauma of losing one or more fingers and who desire to restore use of their fingers through prostheses.

His company makes the only active-function fingers worldwide that he is aware of, and his patent is valid in dozens of countries, said Steve Harrison, of Naples, who serves as the company's accountant.

Didrick himself handles the finishing work for each prosthesis, called the X-Finger, to customize the stainless steel and plastic artificial finger or fingers to fit to conform to the patient. Flesh-colored silicone finger sheaths are worn on the outside.

"We can pigment them to add a little realism," he said.

* * * * *

The finger segments are made of stainless steel and pins to mimic how fingers can extend and curl inward to grasp an object, type on a keyboard and a myriad of daily living tasks. The device doesn't need batteries and instead is powered by movement of the residual finger or opposing finger. A band around the finger or wrist holds it in place.

"It's really an evolving process," he said. "I'm on the 93rd revision. This is something as we have developed and gotten feedback on, we tweak."

The manufacturing of an X-Finger starts with a block of steel to cut out the components, which is sized larger and can be cut down to an individual's need.

The part components are made in China and elsewhere; no manufacturing is done in Southwest Florida.

The company doesn't have direct contact with patients. Instead the orders are placed through prosthetists who find his business through the website and order the devices for the amputees they are working with through medical centers.

"They take the measurements and send it to us, and they get it approved through insurance," he said. "Once they get pre-approval, we can assemble and fit to the patient."

So far, sales are "still in the hundreds," he said. "We have been actually selling for four or five years."

Harrison points out that the company hasn't had to spend any money on marketing, except through the company website, and not a single cold call has been made.

An order can be filled in 30 to 60 days, if all of the parts are available. The grant will help build an inventory.

More recently, Didrick Medical has launched a charity, World Hand Foundation, to help amputees in need who don't have insurance receive an X-Finger to help with their rehabilitation.

* * * * *

The Chase grant adds to his growing list of accolades.

Didrick's invention has been featured on Modern Marvels on the History Channel and the television news program, "Squawk Box."In addition, X-Finger devices are on display in several museums, including the United States Patent and Trademark Museum, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and elsewhere.

He also was presented with the 2009 Perfect Pitch Award at the Entrepreneur and Investor Conference in Marina del Rey, Calif. The competition had submissions from eight countries and the U.S.

His accomplishments have taken him far for someone who got into the business of artificial fingers by chance.

Growing up in Ohio, he always planned to become a special effects artist. His father, a dentist, once had a patient who lost her nose, upper lip and nine teeth, so Didrick helped out.

"I made her a new face, a mask with a nose and upper lip," he said. "It changed my life. There's no reward for making ghoulish masks."

After graduating from Heidelberg University in Ohio, he moved in 1992 to Japan because he wanted to learn the language. He lived in the industrial area of Kawasaki where he encountered people who were losing fingers from manufacturing plant accidents.

"I began making cosmetic fingers," he said.

When he came back to the U.S. and moved to Naples, he met someone who was deaf and had lost a finger, making the person's ability to communicate through sign language challenging. He died before Didrick could get him an artificial finger with functional movement.

Lacking training as an engineer, Didrick purchased a computer-aided design program, Solid Works, then designed his first X-Finger.

"A patent attorney told me it would cost $10,000," he said of getting the patent.

He went another route, buying a book about self-patenting and did it himself in 2002.

"It's been 10 years," he said.

Source : http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/sep/03/digital-business-company-chase-grant-prosthetic/

Trademark Attorney | "What Is A Trademark Attorney?"

By : IPS Staff
Category : Trademark Attorney

Trademark Attorneys are involved in trademark law who also provide information and advice in trademark and design issues. A Trademark Attorney is responsible in the process of selecting trademark, documentation to register trademark, trademark search, advice on use and registration of trademark and many other trademark issues.
There are some standardized tests that a Trademark Attorney must take in order to practice legally.

In most of the countries, especially in the United Kingdom, a Trademark Attorney is considered as a separate legal profession and is recognized as a lawyer. However, in the United States Trademark Attorneys are recognized as general legal professionals.

In the United States a Trademark Attorney with a license to practice can represent any individuals or companies in the US Trademark Office. On the other hand Patent Attorney must pass an exam to represent companies and individuals but a Trademark Attorney does not need to pass any exams.

The examiners who review the Trademark Applications are also licensed Trademark Examining Attorney. The examiners also help in Trademark Search to make sure that the trademark applied is not identical to a registered or a pending application. It is wise for any individual to have a Trademark Attorney representing them while filing a Trademark Application. Because once someone files a Trademark Application their application will be reviewed directly by an Attorney at the Trademark Office.

Trademark Attorney | "Five strategies from Fay Sharpe on what to do when you’re the target of intellectual property litigation"

By : Cleveland 
Source : http://www.sbnonline.com 
Category : Trademark Attorney 

The impact of intellectual property litigation can devastate a small business, as it is an extremely expensive and there are many steps involved in preparing a defense.

“The most important thing is to not ignore the complaint,” says Jude A. Fry, a partner with Fay Sharpe LLP. “When a complaint is delivered, you typically have 21 days to answer or to file a motion to dismiss. Don’t just sit on it for two weeks and then decide you have to act because there is a lot you need to do immediately,” she says.

Smart Business spoke with Fry about how to defend yourself against intellectual property infringement lawsuits both before and after a complaint has been filed.

When a suit is filed, how much time can pass before a company needs to take action and should you assert potential defenses?

Act immediately. Contact and retain legal counsel as soon as possible. Preferably, hire an attorney who specializes in patent, trademark or copyright law who can help you figure out the strength of the complaint and your potential defenses.

However, chances are that the attorney you hire will want a retainer. Ask him or her for an estimate of the attorney’s fees you may expend over the course of the litigation so that you’re aware of the potential costs of the suit. Talk with your general counsel to get a recommendation for someone who could handle the case.

It’s possible to assert a counterclaim against the other side to try to leverage a settlement. For example, the products of the entity filing the suit could be examined to determine if any infringe on your patents. You can also assert counterclaims that the other side’s intellectual property is invalid or unenforceable, assuming you have a basis for making these claims. Once the other party is under the gun, it may not want to pursue the lawsuit.

The counterclaims that you assert are going to be related to the facts that are alleged against you in the complaint. There are times when the other side may try to file a motion to strike your counterclaims or remove them to a new litigation, but typically they are going to be part of your answer to the complaint.

Can claims contained in the complaint be covered by insurance?

Yes. Particularly if the claims include an advertising component, they could be covered under an ‘advertising injury’ provision of a comprehensive general liability insurance policy. While this type of provision is often part of a policy, it usually has exclusions.

Immediately contact your insurance agent and send him or her a copy of the complaint. The insurance company could agree to defend you in the suit and cover your attorney’s fees. However, it may retain counsel of its own choosing to defend you, and you might want to dispute their choice.

The insurance company may also pay the other side to settle the matter or pay any judgment against you, although this is often only the case when you’ve included previously such a clause in your policy. Either way, it’s worth the time to determine whether your insurance will cover any part of this.

Should documents and emails related to the complaint be destroyed?

Definitely not, because the court is likely going to discover you did so and will sanction you. As a result, you will either have to pay damages or the court could presume that you have done something wrong. Destroying evidence could be devastating to your case.

Contact your IT department and place a preservation hold on documents, including emails that may pertain to the litigation. Take affirmative steps to make sure all evidence is maintained and put steps in place to ensure that you identify and protect documents that, without intervention, could be destroyed.

Have an attorney speak with key people who may have knowledge or documents that pertain to the litigation and advise them of the necessity to preserve evidence.

How can a company assess its potential exposure in a lawsuit?

Work with your lawyer to see what types of damages could be available to the other side, such as monetary damages that could include an award of your profits, a reasonable royalty on sales of infringing products and actual damages to the other side. Also, estimate your sales of the product that has been accused and the profit that you made from those sales.

Statutory damages could also be available in copyright infringement cases. Statutory damages can be applied if fault is established without proof that the claimant has been damaged or that it lost sales to you. Damages claimed can range from $750 to a maximum of $150,000 if willful infringement can be proved.

Also, consider the business implications of an injunction enjoining the sale of the accused product. This could result in an injunction that prevents you from selling the product associated with the violation, which could mean the end of your business.

What steps can a company take to avoid this type of litigation?

Do your research and determine whether competitive products are protected. Examine packaging, advertising and websites for trademark and copyright symbols and references to patent numbers. If a party is holding a similar product out as covered by intellectual property, talk to an Intellectual Property lawyer prior to selling or manufacturing your product. While there is always the chance that regardless of the precautions you take, you could still get sued, consulting with counsel in the early stages can better position you to disprove a claim that you intentionally infringed a copyright, trademark or patent.

Also, apply for your own intellectual property protection. In addition, if you are working with independent contractors, make sure you have agreements in place to ensure you own all the rights in the work and that your employees execute agreements assigning all rights in IP to you.

Source : http://www.sbnonline.com/2012/08/five-strategies-from-fay-sharpe-on-what-to-do-when-you%E2%80%99re-the-target-of-intellectual-property-litigation/?full=1