Every business and financial service company, from start-up to going-concern, should protect its intellectual property assets. Failure to protect your intellectual property assets is like giving them away to your competitors. The Intellectual Property Practice Group offers comprehensive intellectual property services for owners and users of copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.
Intellectual property includes written works, designs, names, text, instructions, fiction and nonfiction, art, inventions, games, signage, labels, architectural or other design plans, software, and the like, that is developed by an individual or a business and that has a value to the owner and developer of the work. Some examples of intellectual property protection measures include copyrights, trademarks, and fictitious name registration.
As a general matter, copyrights protect the composition of written works, music and drama. Trademarks protect the design and name of uniquely stated products and companies. Fictitious names for your business, which are alternate names by which your business may be known, can be registered and then protected through the trademark process.
Trade names, logos and text developed by a business and not protected through legally protective measures can be pirated by other companies, potentially without recourse for the owner of the work. Spending thousands of marketing dollars on logos, designs and unique business names, without first obtaining proper intellectual property counsel and protection, leaves intellectual property owners vulnerable to trademark enforcement actions or infringement and unauthorized use by others.
The Intellectual Property Practice Group at Shumaker Williams, P.C. is prepared to help your business protect the creative work that it has developed. Our services include, but are not limited, to:
• Evaluation of trademarks and analysis of trademark availability searches
• State and Federal trademark registration and maintenance
• Trademark enforcement and infringement litigation
• Software and other intellectual property licensing agreements
• Work-for-hire agreements
• Non-competition and non-disclosure agreements
• Registration of copyrights
• Registration of fictitious names
• Domain name disputes & Cybersquatting
The goal of the Intellectual Property Practice Group is to help you establish and to protect the intellectual property assets that you may have developed, purchased, or hired someone to develop for you. Advance planning and counsel in intellectual property matters is advisable as it enables individuals and businesses to know what intellectual property assets require protection and how such protections can be established. |
