Your trademarks and brand are one of the most vital assets of your business. Our Trademark & Brand Protection practice enables business owners to develop, protect, commercialize and defend valuable trademarks and brands. From rights clearance and U.S. and foreign trademark registration to portfolio management, licensing, and brand development strategy, clients depend upon Stubbs Alderton & Markiles, LLP to provide guidance on trademark strategy and to protect and defend their trademark rights. The Trademark & Brand Protection practice, together with the Firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions and Intellectual Property Litigation practices, provide innovators, creators and entrepreneurs a key legal advantage to help them succeed.
STRATEGY AND REGISTRATION
Our firm provides its clients with a complete range of services for the registration and protection of their trademarks in the United States and around the world. Our practice regularly involves clearance searches and brand selection advice. Our lawyers and trademark paralegals work with our clients to file appropriate applications for trademark protection at the United States Patent & Trademark Office as well as in jurisdictions throughout the world.
Our firm attorneys are uniquely positioned to assist clients in the development of their brand strategies – from start-ups to established marketers. Our attorneys work with clients to develop brand-related business plans, and to establish, market, and grow their intellectual property assets. In addition, our firm is prepared to conduct strategic audits of existing brands as a precursor to any IP asset acquisition or transfer.
We offer the following services:
– Counseling with respect to the selection and clearance of trademarks, including assignments of potentially conflicting trademarks.
– Counseling with respect to appropriate searching strategies. For example, often clients will select a number of possible marks for use in connection with their business. We often assist clients in determining the most cost-effective way of searching for conflicts and clearing the marks. We utilize both in-house generated and online searches as a quick preliminary screening mechanism as well as outside professional vendors for more comprehensive searches.
– Preparing and filing applications to register trademarks with the United States Patent & Trademark Office, as well as state authorities, where appropriate. For example, our attorneys and trained trademark paralegals will engage in the filing of a variety of trademarks, design marks, and logos for goods and services in more than 45 International Classifications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Our firm also tracks the applications through the registration and after.
– Directing a network of Stubbs Alderton’s foreign associates in preparing and filing applications to register trademarks worldwide. Our seasoned attorneys have developed working relationships with hundreds of foreign trademark lawyers who assist our clients in obtaining protection in hundreds of countries and territories. As global trademark registration programs require substantial resources to establish, we work with our clients to prioritize those foreign jurisdictions with respect to business activity, future market growth, and likelihood of infringing activity.
TRADEMARK TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Our attorneys also represent clients in proceedings before the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Our attorneys have extensive experience representing clients whose registrations are being opposed or who are opposing other applications for trademarks likely to cause confusion to the consuming public. We also represent parties in cancellation proceedings before the same federal body.
BRAND PROTECTION
Our Trademark and Brand Protection practice group also works to ensure counterfeit and infringing products are handled quickly. We have a firm understanding of e-commerce activities, including Amazon brand protection options. Among our enforcement activities are:
– Creating cease-and-desist letters, take-down notices, and settlement negotiations to prevent infringers and counterfeiters from damaging your brand.
– Obtaining and executing nationwide ex parte seizure orders and other unique remedies such as renewable orders, asset-freezing orders, and civil contempt orders.
– Litigating against non-cooperative infringers.
– Providing training and working with law enforcement agencies such as the local police or U.S. Customs to combat counterfeiting and piracy.
ENFORCEMENT
Our attorneys have years of experience handling all aspects of intellectual property litigation from development of litigation strategy, discovery planning, and creation of pleadings through to the conducting of trials. Our litigation clients have represented diverse economic and creative interests. Litigation matters may include claims of trademark infringement, copyright infringement, counterfeiting and piracy, trade dress infringement, unfair competition, violations of rights of publicity and privacy, licensing and merchandising disputes, domain name infringement, website infringement and other Internet-related matters, breach of contract, commercial disputes, business disparagement, business torts, idea submission, and libel and slander claims. Our attorneys work closely with our clients to develop strategic plans, including budgeting, specifically tailored to protect our clients’ rights in their valuable intellectual property.
