Enforcing and defending patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets in federal court and in matters before the ITC and PTAB, where the asset under dispute is often the most valuable thing a company owns.
A patent owner who sells an unmarked product recovers nothing for infringement before the infringer received actual notice, and a copyright owner who registered only after the infringement began has usually forfeited statutory damages and attorney fees for it. Most IP cases are shaped by housekeeping of that kind before anyone argues the merits.
The forum sets the remedy. A district court awards damages reaching back six years; the International Trade Commission awards an exclusion order at the border in 16 to 18 months and no money; the Patent Trial and Appeal Board can cancel the asserted claims on a preponderance of the evidence if the petition arrives within a year of the complaint's service. Miss that year and invalidity must be proved in court by clear and convincing evidence.
Trade secrets run on a different clock. The Defend Trade Secrets Act allows three years from discovery, permits an ex parte seizure in extraordinary cases, and asks first whether the owner took reasonable measures to keep it secret. We act for rights holders and the companies they sue, with registered patent counsel where prosecution before the USPTO is in issue.
Prosecuting and defending patent infringement claims in federal court, including claim construction, invalidity and non-infringement defenses, and damages, coordinated with registered patent counsel where USPTO registration is required.
Enforcement and defense of trademark and trade-dress rights, including the infringement, dilution, counterfeiting, and likelihood-of-confusion claims that protect a brand a company has spent years building.
Action on misappropriation of confidential information and trade secrets, starting with emergency relief to stop the use of stolen information, then forensic preservation and protective orders that keep proprietary material confidential through discovery.
Copyright infringement litigation and licensing disputes, covering unauthorized use of protected works, ownership and authorship questions, and conflicts over the scope of a license that governs how an asset may be used.
Representation in matters before the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, meaning Section 337 investigations to exclude infringing imports and inter partes review of patent validity, run alongside any district-court suit.
Resolution through licensing, coexistence agreements, and negotiated settlement where it serves the client, plus appeals and post-judgment enforcement so a favorable result is defended and the value of the right is realized.
A patentee selling a patented product must mark it, physically or by a web address, or damages run only from the date the infringer received actual notice, often the complaint itself. With marking, damages reach back six years from filing. We audit the marking before any demand letter.
In court an issued patent is presumed valid and invalidity needs clear and convincing evidence. At the PTAB the same question is decided on a preponderance, but a petitioner that reaches a final written decision cannot later raise in court any ground it raised or reasonably could have.
An employer that omits the Defend Trade Secrets Act's whistleblower-immunity notice from its confidentiality agreements cannot recover exemplary damages or attorney fees against that employee. The Act allows three years from discovery to sue, permits ex parte seizure in extraordinary cases, and puts the owner's own secrecy measures first.
A trademark registration becomes incontestable after five years of continuous use and a filing, after which it cannot be attacked as descriptive, though genericness, abandonment and fraud remain open. A copyright registration made within five years of first publication is prima facie evidence of validity and ownership. Both shift the burden.
Patent prosecution before the USPTO requires registered patent counsel. We coordinate with registered counsel where that is required and lead the dispute, the infringement case, and the advocacy.
The Patent Act and the Lanham Act shift attorney fees in exceptional cases, a standard loosened in 2014 to the totality of the circumstances; the Copyright Act shifts them too, but only for an owner who registered in time. A covenant not to sue can moot a declaratory-judgment case.
Before anything is filed, we test the right itself on claim scope, prosecution and registration history, chain of title, and validity exposure, and we map the forums: district court for damages, the ITC for exclusion at the border, the PTAB looming for whoever moves first. The complaint is drafted only after the case can survive the counterattack it will invite.
On filing day the complaint lands alongside any emergency motion, such as a TRO on misappropriated trade secrets, or seizure or expedited discovery where the record is at risk. Forensic preservation of devices and accounts is already underway, and a protective order is framed so discovery does not become a second disclosure.
The case is usually won or narrowed at claim construction, where the court fixes what the words of the patent or the scope of the mark actually cover. While the Markman and expert record is built, the parallel front, an IPR at the PTAB or a Section 337 investigation, runs on its own clock, and each proceeding is sequenced so no forum undercuts another.
With construction set and experts locked, the pressure on the other side peaks. We press it into an injunction or exclusion order, a damages verdict, or a license or coexistence agreement that captures the same value without trial, then defend the result on appeal and enforce it, so the right emerges stronger than when it was challenged.
An infringement case is two cases: the one you file, and the attack on your right that files back.
Intellectual property litigation is the enforcement and defense of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets through the courts and administrative tribunals. It turns on proving what a right covers, whether it was infringed, and what it is worth, which combines commercial-litigation discipline with the technical and registration questions that belong only to IP.
The disputes a company meets when a competitor's product reads on its patent, a former engineer's laptop turns out to hold the source code, or a rival adopts a confusingly similar name. We act for the rights holder enforcing the asset and for the company defending against an assertion, in federal district court, in Section 337 investigations at the International Trade Commission and in inter partes review at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. The common thread is a technical or documentary record that has to be built fast: the marking history, the prosecution file and the chain of title. Where prosecution before the USPTO is in issue we bring in registered patent counsel.
We litigate and enforce patents. We do not prosecute them. Drafting and prosecuting patent applications before the USPTO requires registered patent counsel, and we coordinate with registered counsel where that admission is required, while we lead the dispute strategy, the infringement and validity case, and the courtroom advocacy.
First by proving the secret was treated as one, since the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the state acts require reasonable measures to maintain secrecy before anything else is reached: access controls, confidentiality agreements and exit procedures are the evidence. Then by moving quickly. A temporary restraining order and expedited discovery can issue within days; forensic images of the devices and accounts involved are taken before anyone can clean them; and a protective order with an attorneys'-eyes-only tier keeps the secret from being disclosed by the lawsuit meant to protect it. The federal Act allows three years from discovery of the misappropriation and, in extraordinary cases, an ex parte seizure order. We also check the company's own agreements for the Act's whistleblower-immunity notice, since omitting it forfeits exemplary damages and fees against that employee.
When the infringing products are imported and the client wants them stopped rather than paid for. The International Trade Commission cannot award damages; it issues exclusion orders enforced by U.S. Customs and cease-and-desist orders against domestic inventory, usually within 16 to 18 months of institution. The price of admission is the domestic-industry requirement: the complainant must show significant investment in the United States tied to the asserted right, a showing the Federal Circuit widened in 2025 to include sales, marketing and distribution spending. A respondent can demand a stay of any parallel district-court case, so the two forums are planned together rather than chosen between. Where the dispute is domestic, or the client needs money rather than a border, the district court remains the forum.
Most are, and the timing is usually set by the court's calendar rather than the parties' appetite. In patent cases the claim-construction ruling and the institution decision at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board are the two moments when valuations converge; in trademark cases it is the preliminary-injunction ruling. The resolution can be a license with a running royalty, a coexistence agreement that divides markets or channels, or a covenant not to sue that moots the dispute entirely. Fee-shifting shapes every negotiation: patent and trademark fees shift in exceptional cases, and copyright fees only for an owner who registered in time. We prepare for trial throughout, because a party known to be ready for it settles on different terms.
Infringement and validity disputes in federal district court, from claim construction through damages and appeal.
Explore →Paragraph IV certifications, 30-month stays, and branded-versus-generic pharmaceutical patent disputes.
Explore →Complainant and respondent representation in investigations before the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Explore →IPR, PGR, and covered-business-method petitions and patent-validity challenges before the PTAB.
Explore →Infringement, dilution, counterfeiting, and DMCA disputes that defend a brand and its protected works.
Explore →Protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, trade secrets, and proprietary information through litigation and dispute resolution.
Explore →Trial advocacy for complex business disputes, contract breaches, and commercial conflicts in state and federal courts, with the case narrowed early to what can be won.
Explore →Arbitration, mediation, and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, used to end a conflict without ending the business relationship.
Explore →Representation in employment disputes, restrictive-covenant and trade-secret matters, and workplace conflict resolution.
Explore →Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
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