Intellectual Property/Trademark
Balch has a wealth of experience in a wide variety of Intellectual Property and Trademark work. We have experience in the traditional varieties of Intellectual Property, trade secret trademarks, copyrights and patents, but we also have experience in the developing contexts in which such Intellectual Property issues become relevant, i.e., the Internet, computer hardware and software, employment contracts and regulatory compliance with regard to privacy concerns.
In a litigated context, Intellectual Property disputes often require expedited litigation either on the claimant or on the defendant's side. In a corporate context, it is often useful to have a track record relative to business negotiations. Balch's Intellectual Property Practice combines the talents of many attorneys in a variety of practice areas. The attorneys who have knowledge, background and/or experience that would be useful to a particular matter will vary with the case or matter. A partial listing of the areas in which Balch's Intellectual Property Practice Group has background and experience include the following:
Information Related Matters
- Drafting, enforcing or defending against the enforcement of "post-employment restraints" to include non-compete agreements, non-solicitation agreements, "no raid" agreements and agreements that include provisions relating to proprietary information.
- Guarding against or initiating actions against disgruntled, former employees to sabotage databases by way of hacking into a computer system.
- Drafting and dealing with disputes involving voluntary exchanges of confidential information.
- Agreements between inventors and companies relating to inventions or data collections.
- Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA") cases to obtain records from governmental entities and "reverse FOIA" cases to prevent the release of materials from the government.
- Telecommunications actions involving billing aggregation and local exchange carriers ("LECs").
Identity Related Matters
- Balch & Bingham has a well-developed practice relating to trademarks, including both trademark registrations as well as trademark litigation.
- Balch & Bingham has trained trademark professionals who understand the process of the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") as they relate to the registration of trademarks, as well as either challenging trademarks or defending against challenges of trademarks before the USPTO.
- Balch & Bingham has a good deal of experience relating to identity issues on the Internet. In particular, Balch & Bingham has had several Internet domain name cybersquatting actions that it has prosecuted either through the court system or through the arbitrators at the World Intellectual Property Organization.
- Balch & Bingham has been called upon to defend against antitrust claims relating to the manner in which domain names are deleted from the registry and registrar database in certain Top Level Domains.
- Balch & Bingham has handled a wide variety of "passing off" and other related false advertising claims involving nationwide television advertising campaigns, art and brand identity issues generally.
Works of Invention
- Drafting or reviewing trade secret agreements.
- Prosecuting and defending a wide variety of trade secret cases involving allegations of theft of inventive works that may qualify for trade secret protection.
- Prosecuting and/or defending patent and infringement actions.
- Prosecuting or defending cases involving breach of contract and interference with business relationships involving foreign defendants who have made unauthorized use of inventions or have attempted to exercise control over inventions that are not theirs.
- Assisting clients in finding a patent lawyer who is right for their company in terms of the business strategy and long-term goals of the client.
Creative Works
- Balch & Bingham has civilly prosecuted counterfeiting actions.
- Balch & Bingham has defended against claims of copyright and trademark infringement.
- Balch & Bingham has represented creators of logos, architectural works, and many others.
Computer Related Issues
- These actions include commercial cases in a computer context such as fraud allegations as to computer hardware and software functionality.
- These actions have also included allegations of "vaporware."
- Balch & Bingham also has represented clients in software royalty disputes.
