Intellectual Property Law

Intellectual property law is difficult, confusing and contains traps for the unwary.  We see lots of attorneys out there – good, competent attorneys whom you would trust with your divorce or will – not know the difference between a copyright and a trademark.  That matters when you thought you bought the source code on some software and they only assigned the trademark rights in the contract.  If you deal in intellectual property, your attorney should as well.

Many deals that we see revolve around intellectual property.  When you buy a business, many times the customer list, name of the company and the website are the most valuable assets.  However, many attorneys do know the difference between a trademark and copyright.  We live IP law and have been working in it for decades.  Darin Siefkes was not always a lawyer, before law school he worked in media.   He has created IP for himself, businesses he has worked for and clients.  While working as a video producer, he had to license artistic works, make sure that the right party owned the finished work while dealing with contractors, subs and employees.  Add in his radio, multimedia and television experience with his patent litigation experience and you will hire an attorney that understands intellectual property inside and outside.

We handle:

Trade secrets – we protect, license and sell trade secrets for our clients.  We can also help develop policies and agreements that help keep your trade secrets secret.  A few examples of trade secrets are: a restaurant’s recipes, customer list, internal pricing models and secret formulas (like Coca-Cola).

Trademarks – We work with common law, state and federal trademarks.  We register trademarks but also know when registration is not the right answer.  We also know how to properly transfer a trademark.

Copyrights – Copyrights is the heart og software and all media law.  We help clients by overseeing code reviews (for purchasing or selling software), making sure that businesses own what they thing they own and protecting copyrights as they are created by a business.  We understand fair use and how it works in the real world.

Patents – We can help manage, buy and sell your patents.  We work with several patent and litigation attorneys to acquire and defend patents for our clients.