Intellectual Property
Protecting and making productive use of intellectual property is a critical element of long-term business growth and success. Companies know that patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets are among their most valuable assets. In light of the substantial investment that businesses make in research and development, brand management and product awareness, programs for the protection, exploitation and enforcement of intellectual property rights should be key elements of a company’s business plan.
We represent companies of all sizes, both in the United States and throughout the world, in the design and implementation of these programs. Experience in intellectual property law, combined with our ability to handle the largest of litigated cases and all forms of dispute resolution, enable us to assist businesses. We do so by actively protecting and enforcing their intellectual property rights and properly defending them from charges of violating the intellectual property rights of others.
We also provide patent, trademark and copyright counseling to a large client base, including many in high technology. These companies span many diverse fields including the Internet, semiconductors, computer hardware and software, life sciences, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and avionics, computer imaging systems, process control systems, and electronic games and publishing.
Practice Expertise
Representative Experience
- Representing a defendant in two trade secret misappropriation and copyright infringement cases involving licensed software delivered to the defendant. The plaintiff claimed ownership of source code provided by the plaintiff to the defendant during the job in addition to licensed object code. The defendant maintained that it had acquired title to the source code. We successfully represented the defendant in both state court and federal court in two separate lawsuits, obtaining dismissal of all claims.
- Representing a leading converged platform telecommunications equipment maker in patent enforcement action against a manufacturer of networking products. All claims were settled on favorable terms for our client.
- Counseling a fantasy sports Web service regarding its intellectual property needs including the filing of patent applications.
- Representing a financial services startup company based in New York City regarding intellectual property protection in Canada and the United States for names of stock indexes that it intends to market to other financial services companies.
- Defending leading multinational electronics manufacturer based in Japan and China in patent litigation brought by a German plaintiff in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and subsequently in a multidistrict litigation proceeding, arising from seven patents relating to technology allegedly used in the manufacture in China of mini hard disk drives.
- Advising a pharmaceuticals company as licensee in negotiations for a worldwide development and license agreement to produce, sell and sublicense a compound used in treating coronary disease.
- Defending a patent infringement dispute involving indirect transfer printing technology. The case was settled based on mutually satisfactory business arrangements.
- Advising NBA star LeBron James in the protection of intellectual property through monitoring and challenging unauthorized uses and perfecting rates as appropriate.
- Representing the city of Cleveland in federal litigation brought under the Lanham Act to assert and protect the city's intellectual property rights to the name, colors and team history associated with the Cleveland Browns football team. That litigation was part of the firm's successful efforts that led to an unprecedented settlement with the National Football League and the team owner, guaranteeing Cleveland a new team for the city (with such intellectual property rights being retained for use by that team).
Case Studies
Infringing products can come from anywhere, but stopping one distribution outlet often means the infringer just pops up elsewhere. Squire Sanders’ intellectual property lawyers demonstrated persistence and savvy in tracking an infringer across severa...
Squire Sanders intellectual property lawyers faced an uphill battle when a client sought cancellation of a competitor’s confusingly similar registration. Issues included the prior rejection of an opposition to the application that matured into the re...
On the Internet, more than half the battle is finding the individual behind the infringement. Internet infringement ranges from creating confusingly similar or misspelled domain names to actual use of a registered trademark on a website or banner ad,...
Can one trademark encompass another mark in its entirety and not be considered infringing? That was the issue facing our intellectual property lawyers in an opposition brought by a large Germany-based company against a client’s pending trademark appl...
We acted for a major producer of alcoholic beverages whose trademarks were being violated by a local producer. As well as ensuring a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) compliant-piece of legislation, we obtained the first e...
Squire Sanders’ lawyers’ recent actions led to a consent decree entered, with damages paid to our client, in US litigation under the false advertising provision of the Lanham Act. Our client’s competitor was selling and shipping a product without the...
Squire Sanders lawyers recently won three complex appeals at the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Each appeal involved variations of an invention to improve torque generation. The problem was...
Situation:Cedar Fair, L.P., learned that CBS intended to sell its five US and Canadian Paramount amusement parks through an auction process. If Cedar Fair were able to acquire these parks, it could approximately double its holdings.Challenge:Cedar Fa...