Trademark Registration & Enforcement
If you are a business owner using a unique brand name, logo, and/or image in interstate commerce, you may qualify for federal trademark registration. A federal trademark registration confers the right to exclude others from infringing your mark in any manner that is likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source of goods or services. Federal registration on the Principal Register affords significant benefits—including a legal presumption of your exclusive right to use the mark nationwide, constructive notice to all others in the country of your trademark ownership, the ability to use the ® symbol, and the monetary and injunctive remedies available under the Lanham Act in the event you need to sue to enforce your mark.
I help clients apply for federal trademark registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO will approve registration if there is no already-existing registration or application that is too similar, and the application meets all other federal requirements. Prior to filing any trademark application, I advise the client on the likelihood of successfully obtaining registration based on a variety of considerations. Where needed, I also handle ex parte appeals and opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trials and Appeals Board.
On the litigation side, I represent trademark owners and accused infringers in federal trademark infringement actions. If you are a trademark owner, you can file a trademark infringement lawsuit so long as the trademark is unique to your company and someone else has used the mark without your permission in a way that is likely to confuse the public. A trademark registration, while helpful, is not required to file suit (a key difference from copyright lawsuits.) If you are an accused infringer, there are a number of defenses that could apply to your situation. Contact me for more information about my litigation services.
Copyright Registration & Enforcement
If you are the author/creator of original content—books, articles/blogs, music, artwork, photography, etc.—you may qualify for federal copyright registration. As the author/creator, you automatically have copyright protection once the work is complete. However, a federal copyright registration is required to legally enforce those rights.
Registering your work as soon as possible preserves your entitlement to greater damages in the event of future infringement. If your work was copyright-registered at the time of the alleged infringement (or within three months after publication of the work), you may qualify for statutory damages of up to $30,000 per infringed work, or $150,000 per infringed work if the court finds that the infringement was willful. To ensure clients gain these benefits proactively, I help clients apply for federal copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. I also represent clients in federal copyright infringement actions.
In some cases, an infringement may happen before you had the chance to register the work. In these cases, you are not left without a remedy. At the Copyright Claims Board, similar to a small claims court, you can file a claim so long as you have a copyright application pending. The Copyright Claims Board (CCB), run by the U.S. Copyright Office, is designed to provide a more cost-effective way to resolve infringement disputes where the claimed damages are less than $15,000 per infringed work.
The CCB can also be used defensively to potentially prevent a lawsuit if you have received a demand letter and are anticipating the prospect of federal litigation. If you are on either the enforcing or defending side of a copyright infringement claim, contact me and we can discuss whether a CCB proceeding could benefit your goals.
Litigation
I have litigated intellectual property matters in federal courts statewide. If you believe that your intellectual property has been infringed, or if you are accused of infringing someone else’s intellectual property, please contact me regarding my litigation services.