Intellectual Property Litigation

The Intellectual Property Team at Bowles Rice offers a broad range of services directed toward the protection of intellectual property assets, including services related to trademarks, trade secrets, trade dress, copyright, patent common-law rights, and unfair competition. Bowles Rice lawyers have prosecuted and defended infringement actions in federal courts throughout the U.S. in various industries, including telecommunications, electronics, pharmaceuticals, mining equipment, highway and bridge construction materials and in other areas. They have also appeared before the U.S. International Trade Commission successfully defending a claim of unlawful importation of supposedly infringing raw materials. In addition, Mr. Fusco, the leader of the IP team, is admitted to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has jurisdiction over appeals involving patents, trademarks and copyrights.

The firm’s extensive and comprehensive business and corporate law resources enable the IP team to offer clients a wide range of intellectual property support services, including the development of licensing agreements, strategic planning, management and marketing of IP assets and portfolios, and advice on the wide range of business, transactional, technical, and employment issues inherent in the technology transfer process.

The firm’s IP lawyers regularly work with other Bowles Rice attorneys with vast experience in commercial transactions and business development. Bowles Rice attorneys have negotiated licensing and related agreements with major manufacturers in the U.S. and overseas.

We are well-qualified and experienced in the representation of individual inventors, authors, entrepreneurs, educational institutions, research organizations, and corporations of all sizes and degrees of complexity. We also counsel clients at all stages of intellectual property development, at both institutional and individual levels. Our lawyers bring an exceptionally broad degree of industrial experience to the development of corporate and institutional intellectual property policies, and we will work with clients prior to the application process to make strategic decisions regarding the prioritization of applications and decisions on filing in the context of discoverable prior art and other business considerations.  While we do not perform patent drafting or prosecution services, we have established relationships with corresponding counsel in the Washington, D. C. area to assist us in that regard.

We provide legal opinions on the potential validity, infringement, and ownership of patent rights, and we are experienced in the negotiation and drafting of agreements, structuring of supporting commercial arrangements, and supporting the licensing and sale of patents and other intellectual property.

With respect to trademark practice, we advise and counsel clients on the selection of trademarks, service marks, slogans, designs and logos. We regularly assist clients with the preparation and prosecution of trademark and service mark applications and the negotiation of draft agreements for the license and sale of brands, logos, trademarks, service marks, trade names, and trade dress.

The firm’s IP Practice also covers the full range of copyright services, which include advising clients on copyright law and the development of copyright policies, filing applications, recording of security interests, and providing for title transfers and title searches. We often render advice to clients on a wide variety of issues related to potential copyright infringement and validity, ownership, and other issues pertaining to art, literary works, computer programs, music, and other works subject to copyright.

We provide advice on the intellectual property aspects of business mergers, acquisitions, and other business transactions. These transactions typically include due diligence reviews of intellectual property portfolios, and we work closely with our clients to develop innovative solutions to complex problems that intellectual property matters raise in business deals. In many of these transactions, confidentiality and trade secrets are at issue, and our experience enables us to design programs and agreements for the protection of confidential information.