We provide other intellectual property services, including transactional services, and services related to trade secrets and trade dress.
Transactions
We provide various transactional services, counseling clients and preparing assignments, which sign or surrender intellectual property rights to another, license agreements, employment agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and confidentiality agreements, which can be made a condition of employment.
Trade Secrets
A trade secret is information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique or process, which provides the owner a competitive edge. A trade secret cannot be acquired by improper means. Improper means includes theft, bribery, misrepresentation, use of a computer or computer network without authority, breach of a duty or inducement of a breach of a duty to maintain secrecy, or espionage through electronic or other means. If a trade secret is acquired by improper means, it is generally deemed to have been misappropriated. We counsel clients in trade secret matters, developing strategies for protecting trade secrets. We also aid in protecting trade secrets using various agreements.
Trade Dress
We counsel clients about trade dress matters. Trade dress under the Lanham Act protects a product design, provided that the design is not a functional feature of the product. A product design can be protected only if it acquires secondary meaning, which means that the public has come to associate and identify the product with the designer. To show infringement, the owner of the trade dress must show that there is a likelihood of confusion.