Trademarks, Copyrights & Trade Secrets

Trademarks

The Trademark infringement lawyers from Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg are prepared to assist Trademark/Service Mark owners (whether an individual or a large company) in the protection of those marks with a Trademark enforcement action if necessary.

A Trademark Infringement action may allow the owner of the mark to recover profits, damages and costs and possibly an award of treble damages and attorneys' fees. Owners of a mark may use the symbol ® once a federal registration has issued from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The symbols ™ (for trademark) or SM (for service mark) are often used with unregistered marks to give notice to the public that the owner is staking out a claim in that mark.

Like with patents, the complexity of the United States Trademark laws and regulations, as well as the formal registration and renewal requirements for a Trademark/Service Mark can be misunderstood and overwhelming for persons who are untrained or unfamiliar with trademarks.

Trademarks are a type of intellectual property, which is used to identify a source and standard of quality of products. Likewise, Service Marks are used to identify a source and standard of quality of services.

Trademarks and Service Marks can be words, names, symbols, designs, phrases or sounds or any combination thereof that identifies or distinguishes the goods or services of a manufacturer or merchant from the goods or services manufactured or sold by others.

Trademark/Service Mark rights can arise by either filing an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office based on a good faith and honest intent to use the mark on a product or in association with a service that will soon be offered to the public, or by actually using the mark in commerce on a product or in association with a service.

The owner of a Trademark/Service Mark may file an application for registration of the mark based on the actual use of the mark in commerce or on the good faith and honest intent to use the mark in commerce. The registration of the mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office gives the owner the benefit of a nationwide priority as of the date of filing, except as to certain prior uses or prior applicants. It also provides the owner with procedural advantages in a lawsuit for Trademark infringement.

Copyrights

As with Patents and Trademarks, the Copyright infringement attorneys at Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg are experienced and ready to assist copyright owners (whether an individual author or a large company) in the enforcement and registration of Copyrights. The enforcement of Copyright laws is frequently accomplished for our clients through contingent fees.

A Copyright is a statutory property right which grants to creators (authors) certain exclusive rights with respect to their creation for a limited duration. Essentially, a Copyright protects original works of authorship which are fixed in a tangible medium of expression, i.e., it protects the expression of ideas, but not the ideas themselves. For example, a Copyright may protect a work such as a book, a picture, a graphic, a sculptural work, music, photographs, movies, and computer programs.

While registration of a Copyrighted work is not required to establish the existence of a Copyright, it is a prerequisite to filing a Copyright infringement lawsuit and provides certain other legal remedies and advantages.

Trade Secrets

While a Trade Secret cannot be registered, the intellectual property litigation attorneys of Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg are experienced and accomplished in assisting Trade Secret owners (whether an individual inventor or a large company) in the enforcement of its Trade Secrets. Because individuals or companies that have had their Trade Secret taken from them often do not have a litigation budget to assist in recovering the damages, Goldstein, Faucett & Prebeg often assist Trade Secret owners through a contingency fee arrangement.

The law protecting Trade Secrets was developed because the owner's commercial advantage can vanish once a competitor learns of the Trade Secret. Thus, the law protects the Trade Secret owner's efforts to keep her/his achievements secret and gain a commercial advantage over her/his competitors.

Unlike Patents, Trademarks/Service Marks or Copyrights, a Trade Secret is a type of Intellectual Property for which the owner does not seek registration or a grant from the United States government.

A Trade Secret typically consists of a formula, pattern, device or compilation of information which is used in the Trade Secret's owner business and which gives the Trade Secret owner an opportunity to obtain an advantage over competitors who do not know or use the Trade Secret.

A Trade Secret may be a formula for a chemical compound, a process of manufacturing, treating or preserving materials, a pattern for a machine or other device or a list of customers.

As the name of this Intellectual Property suggests, Trade Secrets must be kept secret. Matters which are generally known or commonly known to the trade in which the Trade Secret owner is engaged cannot be protected as a Trade Secret.