Adams and Reese has a multidisciplinary team that handles the wide range of issues presented by technology-intensive matters. The Internet has created unique business opportunities both for established companies expanding into new channels of commerce and for emerging companies implementing online business models. As more companies venture online, we are there to escort them into the new marketplace, and for the tech-savvy companies, we are their e-business partner, addressing their Internet-related legal issues. The rapid-fire fashion of high-tech business necessitates responsiveness, pro-action and vigilance.
Our Attorneys
Adams and Reese maintains an experienced team of full-time intellectual property attorneys with backgrounds in many technical fields connected to IP, including physics, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry and computer and life sciences, as well as work experience in a wide variety of industries. Speaking the language of your industry and understanding the value of branding, trade secrets and proprietary solutions helps us to quickly assess and develop recommendations that will serve your business long term.
Core Practice and Clients
Adams and Reese serves a diverse group of clients in communications/entertainment, computer hardware and software, consumer and industrial electronics, chemical, oil, gas and energy, internet and cyberspace, and the optics industry, among others. We represent large international concerns, emerging companies as well as universities and research organizations.
Patents: Patents are the cornerstone of any intellectual property strategy. Our patent practice will help you assess your technology and create a strategy to protect proprietary rights. Our team conducts patent searches, evaluates patentability, prepares and prosecutes patent applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and handles reexaminations, 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.
Trademarks: Trademarks and the goodwill associated with a company’s name is likely the most valuable asset of any company. The broad experience and knowledge of our attorneys enables us to provide legal counsel to identify, preserve and enhance a company’s trademarks and the reputation associated therewith, as well as enforce the right to exclude competitors from exploiting your goodwill. Our attorneys assist in the selection of trademarks, conduct trademark clearance searches, prosecute trademark applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, create and execute licensing strategies, enforce trademark rights and litigate trademark infringement and related actions.
Copyrights: We offer knowledge and experience in copyright protections for works such as software, fashion, musical recordings and literary works. We assist a variety of clients in advisory services, registration with the U.S. Copyright Office, assignments, licensing, contract development and negotiation and enforcement.
IP Litigation: Our attorneys also know how to enforce intellectual property rights or defend clients against claims of infringement. We have extensive experience in trade secret theft, confidentiality violations, non-compete agreements, antitrust litigation and investigation, patent, trademark and unfair competition litigation and copyright litigation. Our attorneys offer contract litigation as well as alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and civil procedures for business conflicts, including pre-litigation analysis and investigation. We have also represented clients regarding Federal and International Trade Commission issues.
Internet and Cyberspace: We advise our clients on the acquisition, maintenance and enforcement of rights in domain names, as well as the protection of proprietary rights to materials published on the Web. Our attorneys have extensive experience in dealing with specific Internet use issues, such as e-commerce, Internet law, cybersquatting, and with the intellectual property and commercial issues that relate to transactions and Internet use. We manage trademark and advertising issues and represent private interests in areas of public law that deal with the Internet (e.g. the Communications Decency Act). We have extensive experience in enforcing clients’ rights to domains through UDRP proceedings. 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.
Representative Matters:
- Protection, exploitation and litigation of intellectual property rights
- Trademark, copyright, patent and trade secrets litigation
- Domain name disputes, including ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and ACPA (Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act)
- Website content disputes and litigation
- Security and disclosure issues
- Government regulation
- Technology licensing and strategic alliances
- Negotiation of strategic alliances, joint venture and co-branding relationships
- Business method and Internet-related patent preparation and prosecution
- Monitoring web site exposure and drafting terms of use
- Counseling on privacy issues and drafting related documents and policies
Representative Experience:
- Litigated claims for copyright, trademark, trade dress infringement and trade disparagement, including Internet-specific claims involving cybersquatting, cyberslamming and metatags.
- Represented clients in disputes involving patent, trade secret and unfair competition.
- Represented companies in claims involving hardware and software for computer-related components, software for flight simulators, hardware and software for communications network hubs (including routers and switches).
- 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 U.S. patents.
- 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 10 years on the Science and Technology Subcommittee, where he worked with federal policy makers.
By choosing Adams and Reese, you reduce the head count of experts, potential cost and failure rate because we can help you understand the risk, financing and insurance issues associated with complex IP development and enforcement. Many lawyers write patents; we help you understand the rationale for IP protection and how to leverage what you own.
