Proskauer Rose LLP's Intellectual Property Practice Group covers a wide range of legal disciplines and knowledge industries. For more information about this practice area, contact:
In addition to a long history of experience in the recognized disciplines of copyright, false advertising, patent, trademark and trade secret law, Proskauer provides a full scope of services to clients in businesses heavily dependent upon intellectual property, including those in the advertising, broadcast, cable, chemical, consumer electronics, cryptography, computer, E-commerce, high tech, Internet, semiconductor, materials science, alternative energy, telecommunications software, pharmaceutical, medical device, biotechnology, publishing, entertainment, sports, telecommunications, and video processing industries. These services include:
- Copyright Counseling: Advice on matters pertaining to rights, ownership, potential claims and liabilities, private and administrative enforcement, new information and entertainment technologies, software and open-source issues, and numerous other issues throughout the world.
- Patent Counseling: We counsel clients as to the validity and infringement of competitors' patents. and whether clients' own patents are being infringed. We also prosecute patent applications; and work closely with clients in the area of strategic patent portfolio development.
- Intellectual Property Litigation: We represent plaintiffs and defendants and amici curiae, and intervene for interested parties in copyright, trademark, patent, trade dress, unfair competition, trade secret, licensing, misappropriation and related judicial and administrative trials and appeals; direct and supervise foreign counsel in intellectual property litigation abroad, and represent clients in mediations and arbitrations of complex intellectual property disputes.
- Internet and e-commerce: We litigate and counsel on all facets of intellectual property relating to the Internet, including domain name selection, anti-piracy, cyber-smearing and cyber-squatting, privacy issues, portal agreements and structuring e-commerce arrangements.
- Counseling in Corporate and Secured Transactions: Identification and examination of intellectual property assets in due diligence procedures and in structuring domestic and multinational acquisitions, joint ventures, distributorships, financing and franchise arrangements, workouts and bankruptcies, and investments.
- Computer Law: Development and implementation of intellectual property programs for protection of computer programs, databases, and related works in the United States and abroad; and negotiation and preparation of agreements relating to software development, consultation, licensing, hardware installation and computer procurement and maintenance, as well as information provider and database vending contracts.
- Intellectual Property Policy Development, Legislative Counseling and Government Liaison: Representation in administrative adjudications and rule-making proceedings and legislative hearings and processes related to intellectual property protection; guidance of affected individuals, companies, consortia, and trade associations in the development and effectuation of policies, strategies and tactics; liaison with and representation before executive and legislative branch agencies, including the Copyright Office, the Patent & Trademark Office, the Department of Commerce, the State Department, the United States Trade Representative, the International Trade Commission and the Customs Service concerning protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in the United States and abroad; and representation in governmental and non-governmental delegations at the World International Property Organization, as well as other international bodies.
- Trade Secret Counseling: Establishment of trade secret programs, including employee agreements and practices and related policies.
- Intellectual Property Contracts: Negotiation and preparation of licenses, assignments, employee, commission and consultant agreements, options, publishing and other agreements pertaining to the protection and exploitation of intellectual property worldwide.
- Patent Licensing and Technology Transfer: Negotiation and preparation of patent licenses and technology transfer agreements, including advising clients on antitrust issues with respect to such agreements.
- Trademark Selection: We conduct searches to determine the availability and the scope of available protection for potential marks.
- Trademark Registration: Strategic trademark portfolio development, including prosecution of applications for trademark registration, maintenance filings, and handling of contested issues before the Patent and Trademark Office.
- Trademark Licensing and Franchising: Negotiation and preparation of trademark license agreements and broader business franchise arrangements.
- Copyright Office and Tribunal Practice: Prosecution of copyright registrations and recordation of copyright licenses and assignments, development of client administration programs, searches and assessment of official records, and handling of contested issues before the U.S. Copyright Office and Copyright Royalty Tribunal.
- Patent Office Practice: Prosecution of patent applications in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including complex prosecutions, such as reissue and re- examination applications, interferences, appeals before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, and, with the cooperation of our foreign patent lawyers in various countries, prosecution of applications in patent offices throughout the world.
- Entertainment: Representation of entertainment industry clients, including top recording artists, music entertainment companies, motion picture and television producers, regarding recording, publishing, licensing, new entertainment technologies, and royalty disputes.
The following are examples of some of the important IP matters Proskauer lawyers have worked on:
- The Firm's patent lawyers were responsible for the MPEG-2 patent pool, as well as patent pools related to DVD technology.
- At the request of a coalition of Internet users and businesses, including notably AT&T, Proskauer was asked to head a public policy advocacy group called "Hands Off the Internet," which opposes government attempts to regulate and Net content to tax e-commerce under Proskauer's leadership, "Hands Off" has already played a leading role in convincing elected officials in San Francisco, Miami and elsewhere to defer regulating Internet access.
- The Firm has represented the nation's major movie studios in the first significant DVD-encryption-cracking case under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
- Proskauer has successfully litigated an array of landmark cases, from key fair-use decisions (Texaco, Kinko's), some of the leading Internet decisions (Lerma, Netcom) and the Son-of-Sam law (Simon & Schuster), to cases in such diverse areas of copyright as choreography (Balanchine), architecture (Demetriades) and stage productions (Radio City Music Hall).
- The Firm has been directly involved in emerging technologies related to new media, formats and delivery systems (including CSS, MP3 and DVD) and has considerable depth in the range of First Amendment, libel and other matters relating to publishing and all forms of media.
In order to focus skills and expertise, Proskauer's intellectual property lawyers are organized into the following practice groups: Copyright; Entertainment, Media, Information & Technology; Non-Compete & Trade Secrets; Patent Law; Sports and Trademark & False Advertising.
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