Intellectual Property Infringement Attorneys
Protecting Our Clients’ Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property is often a company’s most important asset. Unique products, brands, innovations, and other works can significantly improve a company’s success. Therefore, every business should carefully ensure that the proper intellectual property protections are in place, such as trademarks, copyrights and patents. Unfortunately, having the necessary legal protections in place does not always stop others from trying to misappropriate your intellectual property and threaten your success.
At Mandour & Associates, we fully understand how valuable intellectual property can be and our goal is to protect the rights of our clients when it comes to a possible infringement. We handle cases involving all types of intellectual property infringement and our team has the knowledge and experience to help your company resolve your infringement matter. We will evaluate whether an infringement occurred and advise on your legal options to resolve the matter in an efficient and effective way.
Trademark Infringement
A trademark is the unique identity of your business and its products or services. Branding that helps consumers to identify a specific good or service can be protected by a trademark. In addition, the law protects branding even prior to obtaining a registered trademark. Simply using a certain unique word, phrase, logo, or design will give you some common law rights (as long as it was not previously used or trademarked by another party).
When another business presents itself in a way that appears or sounds too similar to your business, consumers can potentially confuse the two and your company can suffer as a result. For this reason, if you learn that another party is copying your brand or business name, you should seek out the assistance of a skilled trademark infringement attorney to determine the best course of action.
It is important to examine several factors when determining whether a trademark infringement case should be pursued, including:
- The similarity of the trademarks
- The similarity of the goods and services
- Which party used the trademark first
- Whether there is a shared customer base
- The marketing channels of the products or services
If the need exists to protect your brand, it is critical that you take action as soon as possible. If you fail to protect your trademark, you risk losing your trademark rights. Therefore, you should always be vigilant. Consider using trademark watch tools and contact our office as soon as you learn about a possible infringement.
Copyright Infringement
Copyright law protects creative materials and the owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to use, reproduce, license, and distribute that material. However, when another party uses a copyrighted work without a proper license, such use constitutes a copyright infringement. An infringement may also involve creating a work that is too substantially similar to an existing copyrighted work.
Copyright infringement requires the following:
- A valid copyright
- The infringer had access to the copyrighted work
- The works at issue are substantially similar
A common example of copyright infringement in modern times is someone creating a website that is too similar to a previously published website. Another example is using a graphic or a photograph without the permission of the owner. In either case, another party benefitting from a copyrighted work without permission of the owner is in violation of the copyright holder’s rights.
Patent Infringement
Many companies are based on a product, formula, or new technological development. When a business has a unique product, it is clearly important to maintain ownership of the product by obtaining a patent so competitors cannot reproduce it at will and profit from it. To obtain patent protection, the product must be novel and non-obvious. However, as with any other type of intellectual property, a patent will not necessarily stop another party from trying to wrongfully benefit from your intellectual property.
You should always seek an experienced intellectual property infringement attorney if you believe someone has infringed on your rights.
Taking Action Against Infringement
Not every intellectual property infringement case will head straight into court. In many situations, our attorneys will first demand that the other party immediately stop the infringement. In some situations, a party will cease and desist voluntarily to avoid any further legal action.
In other cases, however, a party may deny an infringement or just ignore requests to cease and desist. If necessary, our experienced intellectual property litigators can initiate litigation on your behalf to protect your rights. Intellectual property litigation can be complex and time-consuming, so our attorneys focus on handling each case in the most efficient and streamlined manner possible.
Contact an Intellectual Property Infringement Lawyer for Assistance
If you believe an infringement of your trademark, copyright, patent, or other intellectual property has occurred, please contact us via our contact form to as soon as possible.