Practice Areas & Industries: Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview

The Intellectual Property group focuses on all aspects of intellectual property and technology law including patents, trademarks, copyrights, unfair competition, trade dress, trade secrets, advertising, entertainment, media, e-commerce and other related rights. Our legal and technical knowledge enables us to guide our clients in transactions involving intellectual property acquisition, development, maintenance, protection, enforcement and commercialization. We provide intellectual property asset protection worldwide.

Our patent attorneys have extensive experience in a range of technologies, including the chemical, electrical, biotechnology, computer software and mechanical fields. Prior to their legal careers, many of our patent attorneys practiced their technical skills in their respective industries. We also educate business managers and technology experts on best practices for the protection and acquisition of corporate intellectual property assets.

Our paralegals maintain and continuously update our extensive docketing and database system for tracking and maintaining intellectual property portfolios throughout the world. Our system includes extranet capability for allowing our clients easy accessibility to their entire worldwide portfolio information on a real time or as needed basis.

Several of our attorneys are active in the American Intellectual Property Law Association and members of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Litigation Committee. Three attorneys were listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2009® and several members of our group are licensed through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Services Available

Creation, Acquisition and Evaluation of Intellectual Property Rights

Examples of our experience with creation, acquisition and evaluation of rights include:

• Preparing and prosecuting patent applications worldwide encompassing a broad spectrum of technologies and technical disciplines
• Providing patentability and infringement evaluations, including right-to-use and patent validity options
• Providing trade dress and trademark availability and infringement evaluations and preparing and prosecuting trademark applications worldwide
• Conducting copyright investigations and preparing and prosecuting copyright applications worldwide
• Obtaining protection for software programs, product packaging, product configuration, product design and multimedia materials worldwide
• Reviewing advertising and marketing programs

Transactional Work and Management of Intellectual Property

Examples of our transactional and management experience include:

• Transferring and licensing all forms of technology and intellectual property rights
• Preparing and negotiating employer/employee proprietary rights agreements, non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality agreements and non-compete agreements
• Preparing and negotiating website developer/designer agreements, website hosting agreements, and internet service provider agreements
• Conducting intellectual property audits and developing trade secret protection programs
• Creating management programs for all types of intellectual property estates, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, domain names, licenses and agreements
• Developing joint venture strategies and agreements
• Providing watch services for and surveillance of all forms of intellectual property worldwide

Intellectual Property Infringement Litigation

In the era of “litigators,” our Intellectual Property Litigation attorneys are proud to call themselves trial attorneys. Our clients trust us to take tough cases to trial and to champion their position before judge and jury.

We have assembled an interdisciplinary team of patent attorneys, trial attorneys, transactional attorneys and paralegals. Our Intellectual Property attorneys handle business litigation in federal and state courts across the country. Our trial attorneys have handled lawsuits involving all phases of intellectual property and have successfully prosecuted intellectual property infringements, misuse and dilution matters, injunctions and seizure of counterfeits. Our litigation experience includes:

• Prosecution and defense of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade dress, trade secrets, domain names, website and internet issues
• Entertainment and media law including licensing disputes, defamation, First Amendment, rights of publicity, privacy and false and deceptive advertising
• Directing and coordinating international intellectual property litigation
• Prosecuting complaints under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
• Prosecuting and defending issues involving the licensing, development and protectability of computer software and technology
• Seizure of counterfeit goods

Our Intellectual Property attorneys also have experience in handling all types of ex parte and inter partes proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the International Trade Commission, the U.S. Customs Service, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau, U.S.D.A. and other agencies including:

• Patent interference proceedings
• Trademark oppositions, cancellations and concurrent use proceedings
• Appeals to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interference and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
• Network television commercial clearance
• Advertising challenges