Trademark and IP
Trademark, copyright and trade secrets
Trademark, copyright and trade secrets: filing, registration, licensing and disputes.
Chapter 01
Where a brand loses its footing
Trademark trouble usually starts before anyone calls a lawyer. A name is chosen, printed on signs and cards and a website, and only afterward does someone ask whether another business already uses something close. Filing and registration are easier when the question is asked first, and a dispute is harder when it is asked last.
Copyright goes wrong on assumptions. A logo, a photograph or a block of text is treated as owned because it was paid for, or because a friend made it, and nothing in writing says so. Trade secrets go quietly: a process, a pricing method or a customer list is shown to a vendor or carried out the door by a departing employee, with nothing signed beforehand to protect it.
Then the letter arrives, from someone claiming your mark, or the work you made turns up under another name. At that point the paper trail you did or did not keep is most of the case.
A blind-embossed seal pressed into cream cotton paper
How the firm works an IP file
The firm's trademark and IP practice covers trademark, copyright and trade secrets, and the full run of work around them: filing, registration, licensing and disputes. It starts with what you actually have and what you want it to do, whether that is a name you plan to build a company on or a work you want to license to someone else.
Cornerstone Law Group, PLLC also runs a business, and says that helps it understand a client's goals and needs, so intellectual property advice is given with formation, contracts and the rest of the business in view. When a matter turns into a dispute, the same firm has trial lawyers who appear regularly, almost daily, in Virginia courts, and mediation is available when a negotiated end is the better road.
Chapter 03
What to bring, and what happens next
Bring samples of the name, logo or work in question, and anything that shows how and where it has been used. Add any registrations you already hold, contracts with designers, contractors or employees who helped make it, and the letter, if a dispute has started.
The first conversation is a free consultation. Call (540) 898-8881; the firm works from Fredericksburg and from Fairfax, Arlington and Leesburg in Northern Virginia. The lawyer will ask what you have, what you are trying to protect and who else is involved, then explain the next step.
The intellectual property practice at Cornerstone Law Group, PLLC covers trademark, copyright and trade secrets, from filing and registration to licensing and disputes.
Three kinds of property
Filed, registered, licensed, defended.
- TrademarkThe name, mark or logo that tells customers who they are dealing with.
- CopyrightThe written, designed or recorded work itself.
- Trade secretsWhat a business knows that its competitors do not.
A dispute over a mark does not always end in a courtroom; read how the firm approaches mediation, or meet the attorneys before you call.