Intellectual Property
The Intellectual property practice of Lannom Coronado Haight PLLC is based upon Scott Haight’s thirty-plus years of experience in this area. His experience ranges from creating and managing global intellectual property portfolios for corporations to helping individuals and small businesses. The intellectual property assets of any business can be quite valuable. To protect these assets, the attorneys of Lannom Coronado Haight PLLC file applications for registration of trademarks, copyrights and domain names, as well as enforcement actions for infringement in state and federal courts. The practice of Lannom Coronado Haight PLLC includes extensive experience in the acquisition, sale and licensing of technology and intellectual property assets, as well as financing secured by intellectual property assets. This also includes protection and enforcing rights of publicity to the use a person’s name, image and likeness, trade dress rights, and trade secret protection and enforcement.
Intellectual property law is a broad area of law that can be described as protecting and enforcing the rights of those who create new ideas and original works that originate in a person’s mind. It covers such diverse things as books, works of art, musical performances, technical drawings, inventions, secret formulas for products, brand names, personal names and likenesses. Intellectual property laws encourage investment in new technologies, artistic expressions, consumer products and brand identification while promoting economic growth. Businesses are more likely to invest time and money to produce new products and new technologies that create jobs if they can benefit from their investment, and authors and artists will be able to produce more works that inform, entertain and educate us if they can benefit from their labor. There are three primary areas of intellectual property protection – trademark, copyright and patent.
Trademark protection is available under both federal and state law. Trademarks protect the names and identifying marks of products and services. It is possible to acquire trademark rights simply by using a trademark in commerce, but registration, especially at the federal level, provides substantive benefits when it is necessary to enforce those rights.
Copyright protection is based upon a specific provision in the U. S. Constitution and is governed solely by federal law. Copyrights protect the expressive arts. They give owners exclusive rights to reproduce their work, publicly display or perform their work, and create derivative works. It protects written works, including text captured in any electronic format; song lyrics; music; performances; artwork; technical drawings and blueprints; architectural works, and software, among other categories. While copyright protection attaches upon fixation of a work, its enforcement requires registration of the copyright with the U. S. Copyright Office.
Patent protection is based upon a specific provision in the U. S. Constitution and is governed solely by federal law. Patents are a right granted by the federal government that protect an invention from being made, sold or used by others for a certain period of time. The process of obtaining a patent involves filing an application with the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office, and requires the specialized expertise of a patent prosecution attorney. Lannom Coronado Haight PLLC draws upon its working relationships with such attorneys as needed when assisting clients in the protection and management of their intellectual property assets.