Trademarks and Copyrights
Advertising Guru Sir John Hegarty has described a brand as “the most valuable piece of real estate in the world—a corner of someone’s mind.” A brand is your name, your reputation, and a company’s most valuable asset. Your brand tells a story of who you are and where you are going. We are passionate about our clients’ brand identities and strive to creatively protect and strengthen them. When challenged, we defend your reputation and goodwill from infringement or dilution to achieve the desired result.
It is important to file internationally even if your organization does not do business in foreign markets. We know the legal procedures and strategies to protect your brand and enforce your company’s trademarks abroad and how to anticipate and avoid issues that can arise.
“Not just brilliant on substantive trademark law, Dykema’s IP specialists are worldly wise about brand and business issues more broadly. Among their number are former examiners, policy experts, legal tech whizzes and former in-house counsel, giving the team a diverse composition that translates into a multi-faceted approach to problem solving.”
– World Trademark Review 2021
Establishing, maintaining and enforcing a strong brand demands a unique blend of strategies, business acumen and knowledge of U.S. and international trademark and unfair competition law. Based on decades of experience across all industries and for a wide range of businesses, we offer practical and responsive trademark advice in all areas of trademark law ranging from trademark selection and clearance, to reputation management to global portfolio procurement, maintenance and enforcement.
With international experience and affiliates, unique investigative tools, watching services and mobile apps, we use a practical approach together with state-of-the-art technology to help procure and protect trademark portfolios in line with client expectations and budgets.
Our team helps diverse organizations of all sizes with:
- choosing new company names, marks, logos, slogans, and non-traditional marks such as product shapes, store layouts, sound marks, and even smells;
- conducting and reviewing clearance searches and providing opinions concerning availability and registrability of new marks;
- filing oppositions/cancellation actions and utilizing other expungement/reexamination procedures;
- policing, prosecuting and enforcing trademark infringement, dilution, false advertising, and other unfair competition;
- assisting with online takedowns and enforcement of trademark rights online and on social media;
- procuring state, federal and international registrations for words, slogans, logos, designs, sounds, smells and trade dress;
- managing, maintaining and optimizing portfolios;
- counseling on domain name issues and resolving domain name disputes via the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, and country code-specific dispute resolution policies; and
- seizing counterfeit goods.
Copyright can provide another tool for protecting valuable IP—from advertising and marketing materials to logos and trade dress to product design, and software/mobile apps. Equally important is protecting copyrightable works in a dynamic, digital age where access to entertainment, resources and information is immediate.
Copyrighted materials are encountered in all industries and all mediums and it is important to ensure not only that such works are protected but also that you are not running afoul of the rights of third parties or prey to copyright complaint schemes. We work closely with our clients to preserve, enforce, and defend their rights through copyright law in the United States and internationally.
Whether you are the licensor, the licensee or seeking to ensure you can use certain materials, it’s prudent that you know your rights. Clients enlist us to help with:
- Copyright searches and counseling
- Due diligence and copyright portfolio audits
- Preparing license agreements
- Enforcing copyrights and copyright licenses
- Obtaining copyright registrations
- Purchase and Sale Agreements
- Pursuing and defending copyright infringement claims and disputes (litigation and arbitration)
We routinely protect and enforce unauthorized reproduction, display, distribution and performance of the following works in the United States and throughout the world:
- architecture;
- literary works such as poetry, articles and books;
- dramatic and musical works including movies, videos and songs; and
- computer software.
We also counsel on the interplay between various types of intellectual property rights in the U.S. and internationally to accomplish our clients’ goals.
"USPTO TM search ‘failures’ push firms towards third-party providers"
Jen Fraser was quoted in the ManagingIP article, "USPTO TM search ‘failures’ push firms towards…
"Trademark counsel weigh in on proposed USPTO fee hikes"
Jen Fraser was quoted in the ManagingIP article, "Trademark counsel weigh in on proposed USPTO fee…
"Lawyers anticipate ‘heightened obligation’ to probe clients over AI use"
Michael Word was quoted in the ManagingIP article, "Lawyers anticipate ‘heightened obligation’ to…
