Intellectual Property Overview
California Intellectual Property Attorney:
Litigation and Counseling
The general rule is that “ideas are as free as the air,” and well they should be. Intellectual property, however, is the exception. Qualifying creative works, know-how, and commercial names or symbols that distinctively represent the goodwill of a business are capable of “ownership,” namely, they confer rights to exclude others from exploiting them.
It is essential to have an experienced intellectual property litigation attorney who understands where the line is between “free as the air” and the proprietary exceptions. Similarly, in obtaining advice on your business, you should have an attorney who fully understands the “metes and bounds” of intellectual property protection.
Some of the types of IP services and representation I offer to my clients are listed below. Please contact me if you need help in any of these areas.
- Trademark registration counsel and litigation
- Copyright transaction law and litigation
- Trade secrets
- Unfair competition
- Visual arts law (photography, graphic design, fine art)
- Expert witness in court proceedings on subjects of IP law and practice
- Right of publicity
- Publishing law and agreements (publishers, authors, agents)
My firm also has experience helping people throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in the following types of IP issues:
- Representing both plaintiffs and defendants in trademark, trade secret, and copyright infringement suits in both state and federal courts throughout California; arbitrations and trials
- Representation in opposition, cancellation, concurrent use, and similar proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
- Representation in online arbitrations of domain name disputes under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and elsewhere
- Trademark clearance and registration (U.S. and International)
- Software and new media technology
- Domain names and internet law
- Advertising law
- Insurance coverage for policyholders in IP disputes
Here is a brief introduction to my three primary practice areas. To discuss all other issues, please contact me, intellectual property litigation lawyer Larry Townsend today.
Trademark Law - One of the most common requests clients ask of me is to help them protect a new name or mark for their businesses. Usually the first step is to conduct an appropriate search to determine whether the name is available, i.e., whether the name, or a confusingly similar name, has been adopted or registered by another party. If the name is available, trademarks are best protected nationally under the federal Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1051 - 1127.
Copyright Law - As a novelist (click here to see my novel ), I appreciate firsthand the importance of copyright protection from the standpoint of the creator. Unlike trademark law, which is governed by both state and federal law, copyright law is entirely federal. Under the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101 - 810 and pursuant to international treaties, protection is afforded to original works of authorship, including written materials, software, multimedia, sound recordings, and works of visual and performing arts.
Trade Secret Law - Having written the story about the ultimate secret sauce, I thoroughly understand the importance of keeping under wraps my clients' trade secrets, whether recipes, formulas, know-how, technical specifications, customer lists, customer requirements, pricing strategies and information, product specifications, or other proprietary information. Trade secrets are protected under both common law and California's version of the Uniform Trade Secrets Act: Civil Code Section 3426.
