Intellectual property attorneys protect and enforce rights in inventions, brands and creative work: patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, licensing and technology transfer agreements, and infringement litigation.
The field divides more sharply than most. Prosecuting a patent before the USPTO requires a separately registered patent attorney or agent with a technical background; trademark, copyright and trade secret work does not. IP litigation is its own discipline again.
Before you hire
Match the specialism to the asset. A firm that files trademarks brilliantly may not be the right one for a software patent or a trade secret injunction.
Deal with rights before disclosure. Public disclosure, sale or offer for sale can destroy patent rights, and unregistered marks are harder and costlier to enforce.
Ask what a clearance search costs and what it does and does not rule out.
Put ownership in writing with employees and contractors. Who owns the code, the artwork or the design is a routine and avoidable dispute.
Patents and trademarks have their own categories in this directory for attorneys focused on one of them.
