Intellectual Property

IP rights, including your brand, is your company’s most valuable asset.  When doing business anywhere, including in the United States, getting your brand and other IP rights protected and registered is a top priority.   At Anderson Brown, we assist clients with registration of IP rights (trademarks, copyrights and patents), oppositions, cancellation, appeals, and related civil suits such as unfair competition, trademark infringement under the Lanham Act and related antitrust suits.

All aspects of IP law are practiced and handled by our firm.  We arrange, manage and oversee investigations, raids and seizures of factories and distribution centers working in conjunction with our affiliate, IPO Pang Xingpu Law Firm of Shanghai, China  (www.ipopang.com ),  IPO Pang and our team work collaboratively to solve many of the infringement problems over there before they arrive in the US.  They work with local MSA (including AIC) and PSB to nip the problem at the outset. They also assist clients with registration at Customs, both at the central and local levels, and engage Customs Inspectors on educational programs to facilitate them in achieving their goal (and our client’s goal) of stopping export of infringing or counterfeit products. If the problem continues in the US, our team will take the protection one step further to ensure a wrong is addressed, an infringement is curbed and a stolen advantage is given restitution.  We believe to properly protect your IP right, we must be prepared to “investigate, litigate and eliminateä” the infringement.

Protecting intellectual property has become increasingly complex for global companies, especially when the situs of the infringement may be thousands of miles away, perhaps in China.  Although IP laws and levels of enforcement in China have become increasingly friendlier to brand owners, knowing how to bring action in an American court against a foreign party and be able to enforce a successful judgment is where our firm is an expert at doing.  Rapid technological advancements have empowered infringers to become much more bold, more stealth and more egregious in their infringement activities and it is this sophistication that needs a seasoned team that understands their “illegal tactics” and be able to  counteract and eliminate them, both in the field as well as in the court room.

Our practice areas include:

  • All facets of IP registration, maintenance and protection
  • Copyright registration and defense
  • Domain name disputes
  • False advertising
  • IP audits and due diligence, in connection with acquisitions and divestures
  • IP litigation and arbitration
  • License, franchise, distribution and related commercial agreements
  • Anti-squatter programs, infringements and parallel imports
  • Packaging and labeling problems, design and approvals
  • Patent
  • Technology transfer
  • Trade secrets
  • Trademarks, designs and branding

Protection: Registration and Counseling

The firm offers comprehensive services to protect, monetize, and defend your intellectual property. With expertise in trademark and copyright registration, we guide you in acquiring legal protection for trademarks and copyrights. This includes conducting trademark searches to assess the chances of successful registration and advising on the strength of the proposed trademarks. We also handle opposition and cancellation proceedings with the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB) and defend your copyright interests in case of infringement allegations.

Monetization: Transactions and Due Diligence

In addition, we assist you in negotiating and drafting agreements related to intellectual property, including licensing, development, confidentiality, and non-disclosure agreements. We provide legal counsel on a range of intellectual property issues, including advertising clearance, licensing and collaborations, and technology purchase and outsourcing agreements.

Enforcement and Defense: Litigation

We are equipped to litigate all aspects of intellectual property disputes, including copyright and trademark infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and licensing disputes. With a broad range of skills and experiences, we are able to effectively defend your intellectual property interests in a variety of business contexts.