Trademarks and Brand Protection

The trademarks and service marks of a business – the words, names, symbols, designs and product configurations by which its goods and services are recognized – are among its most valuable assets. Our attorneys have decades of experience helping a wide variety of clients manage trademark selection (using strategic searching and analysis to influence marketing decisions), registration, monitoring (through our new cost-effective trademark watch system), licensing and enforcement issues in the U.S. and globally, through our relationships with foreign counsel throughout the world. This experience has been invaluable in applying traditional trademark principles to issues presented by the explosion of e-commerce and new media activities. The firm’s expertise includes the protection of trade dress, trade secrets, and non-traditional intellectual properties and resolution of disputes involving a wide variety of false advertising, infringement of publicity rights and other unfair competition claims.

Representative Matters

  • Enforcing a company’s trademarks in court against infringement by major U.S. retailers selling knock-off products from China, while establishing the validity of the marks in the face of charges of genericness
  • Ensuring the rights of the founders of a branded service for labor union members to use a trademark separately claimed by the union
  • Managing trademark portfolios for a leading national telecom company, a global alcohol and beverage distributor and scores of businesses and individuals in a variety of enterprises
  • Achieving nationwide protection under dozens of unique state laws for a nonprofit adopting a trade name
  • Securing early intent-to-use trademark protection for international entrepreneurs seeking to start businesses in the U.S.
  • Protecting trade secrets through the use of non-disclosure agreements
  • Tackling unsettled issues in connection with the balancing of First Amendment rights and traditional positions of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office prohibiting registration of allegedly disparaging marks or federally banned products such as cannabis