Adams and Reese LLP

Intellectual Property and Technology are the currencies of the Information Age, and the IP &  Technology Team of Adams and Reese stands ready to help your company protect and increase the value of those assets and all your electronics legal needs. Our team understands where and how electronics and technology intersect with law, and we command a broad understanding of intellectual property and the technologies to which its concepts apply. Our view of the legal treatment of intellectual property is balanced and integrated, keeping in mind that rapidly developing technologies occur amid legal systems steeped in traditions and principles that are often slow to change. Our goal is to help our clients prosper in this exciting and promising field by paving their way with timely, resourceful and critical legal advice and service.

Representative Matters:

• Copyrights: We advise clients concerning copyrights, register copyrights with the United States Copyright Office, and litigate copyright infringement actions.
• Commercial Litigation - Our attorneys have knowledge and experience in trade secret theft, confidentiality violations, non-compete agreements, antitrust litigation and investigation, and other areas.
• Patent litigation
• Trademark and unfair competition litigation
• Copyright litigation
• Trade secret protection and litigation matters
• Federal and International Trade Commission issues
• Contractual Negotiation, Development and Litigation: Our attorneys have the experience to review and advise you on any negotiable instruments including all types of contracts, agreements, memoranda of understanding and letters of intent related to intellectual property and technology. We can help you develop contractual agreements that protect you and your business. If you find your business in conflict, our contract litigation attorneys are experienced in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and civil procedures, including pre-litigation analysis and investigation.
• Computer and Software Protection: We develop and implement strategies for protecting software through development agreements, licensing, patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks and litigation.
• Communications Law: We advise clients concerning proprietary rights in material published in newspapers, books or magazines, or broadcast by radio, television or satellite.
• Entertainment: Our team members advise on, draft and negotiate contracts for music recording, music and book publishing, and movie and television production packaging deals.
• Franchising: Our attorneys have experience in the representation of franchisors with respect to their distribution networks both in the United States and abroad. We prepare franchise agreements and other ancillary agreements required by franchisors in their relationship with their franchisees. We also have prepared Uniform Franchise Offering Circulars for use by our franchise clients with respect to their activities in the United States, and have assisted in franchise registration in numerous states. When a client has indicated the desire to avoid the franchise pre-sale disclosure and registration regime in its entirety, we have also provided advice as to ways its business affairs could be conducted in order to accomplish that goal.
• Internet and Cyberspace: We advise our clients on negotiating over competing claims for domain names, as well as the protection of proprietary rights to materials published on the Web. Our lawyers have gained considerable experience in specific Internet use issues, as well as in the intellectual property and commercial issues that relate to transactions and information using this medium. We manage trademark and advertising issues relating to the Internet and represent private interests in areas of public law that deal with the Internet (e.g. the Communications Decency Act). We also handle enforcement and defense matters impacted by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, including anti-circumvention issues and safe harbor provisions for online service providers.
• Patents: Our team conducts patent searches, evaluates patentability, prosecutes patent applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and handles patent licensing, technology transfers and outsourcing. We also render opinions concerning, and litigate if necessary, patent infringement matters across a broad range of industry and technology.
• Software Technology: We protect companies' proprietary software and customized programming, and negotiate software-related contracts such as licenses and maintenance agreements. We represent purchasers of deficient software systems in their efforts for relief from manufacturers, and we litigate software system infringement issues. We also prepare and prosecute patent applications covering software and computer technology, including business method and Internet-related inventions.
• International Protection: We offer assistance to our clients in pursuing all forms of intellectual property protection in foreign countries. We coordinate with foreign specialty firms practicing before foreign tribunals and agencies, and we help companies organize and maximize their multinational intellectual property assets.
• Trademarks: We assist in the selection of trademarks, conduct trademark clearance searches, prosecute trademark applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and litigate trademark infringement and related actions.
• Trade Secrets: Our attorneys identify and evaluate trade secrets, customize programs for effective protection of company trade secrets, license trade secrets, and litigate misappropriation actions.

Representative Experience:

• Negotiated transactions ranging from multi-million dollar technology licenses or transfers, to Internet-related agreements for emerging companies.
• Counseled large and small companies on the development, management, and protection of intellectual property and technology management, as well as infringement and validity of United States patents.
• Represented clients in disputes involving patent, trade secret and unfair competition.
• Represented companies in claims involving new technologies relating to hardware and software for computer related components, software for flight simulators, hardware and software for communications network hubs including routers and switches.
• Claims involving mechanical devices and processes relating to environmental cleanup, oil and gas processing and other systems.
• Companies in claims involving chemical components relating to metallocene catalysts and related processes.
• Refrigerants used as an alternative to CFCs.
• Litigated claims for trademark, trade dress infringement and trade disparagement, including Internet-specific claims involving cybersquatting and metatags.
• Performed audits of intellectual property assets and strategies

Our attorneys have a practical, working knowledge of technology in a wide variety of applications from biomedical and pharmaceutical technologies to software and computer related products. Members of our team hold degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics and other fields. One of our attorneys served as a computer applications and systems professor at a local university. Moreover, one of our partners is a former Washington Congressman who served ten years on the Science and Technology Subcommittee, where he worked with federal policy makers.