Trade Secret Litigation
What is it?
Trade secret litigation arises when confidential business information is misappropriated, disclosed, or used without authorization, and the harm can be immediate, significant, and difficult to fully remedy after the fact. The category of information that qualifies for trade secret protection is broad, covering customer lists, pricing strategies, proprietary processes, software code, financial models, and any other confidential business information that derives value from not being generally known. But the protection is not automatic. It depends on the business having taken reasonable steps to maintain the confidentiality of the information, and establishing those steps in litigation requires a factual record that needs to be built carefully and often quickly.
Trade secret cases are also technically complex in ways that most business litigation is not. The line between protected trade secret information and general industry knowledge or skills that an employee is entitled to take with them is genuinely contested in many cases, and the misappropriation analysis requires a level of technical understanding that goes beyond the legal framework into the substance of the information at issue and how it was obtained, used, or disclosed.
How we can help:
We represent clients in trade secret litigation from the earliest stages of an emergency injunction through trial, pursuing full accountability for the misappropriation and the harm it caused. For clients whose trade secrets have been stolen, that means moving quickly to establish the misappropriation, seek emergency relief that stops the ongoing harm, and build the comprehensive damages case that pursues full recovery for the competitive harm the theft created. The investigation that supports a trade secret case needs to happen simultaneously with the preparation of emergency legal filings, and we staff and manage these cases with that urgency in mind from day one.
For clients defending against trade secret claims, we challenge the scope of the claimed trade secrets, contest the sufficiency of the steps the plaintiff took to maintain confidentiality, and build the defense that distinguishes the defendant’s independent knowledge and skill from any information that might have been improperly obtained, drawing on our experience on both sides of these disputes to anticipate and counter the strongest arguments against us.
Trademark Infringement
What is it?
Trademark infringement occurs when someone uses a mark that is confusingly similar to yours in connection with goods or services in a way that harms your brand or misleads consumers about the source or affiliation of what they are buying. The likelihood of confusion analysis that courts apply to trademark infringement claims involves multiple factors, including the similarity of the marks, the relatedness of the goods or services, the strength of the plaintiff’s mark, and the sophistication of the relevant consumer base. That analysis is genuinely fact-intensive, and the outcome depends heavily on the specific marks at issue and the specific marketplace in which they are being used.
Trademark infringement can cause lasting harm to brand equity and consumer trust that is difficult to quantify and even more difficult to restore after it has been allowed to continue. Acting quickly when infringement is discovered is almost always in the brand owner’s interest, both because delay can undermine the availability of certain remedies and because the confusion and dilution that infringement causes compounds over time as consumers encounter the infringing mark in the marketplace.
How we can help:
We pursue trademark infringement claims on behalf of brand owners and defend businesses against infringement allegations, bringing the same preparation and conviction to both sides of these disputes. For brand owners, that means conducting the likelihood of confusion analysis thoroughly at the outset, building the evidentiary record that establishes infringement, and pursuing the full range of available remedies including injunctive relief, damages, and disgorgement of the infringer’s profits. We move with the urgency these situations demand while building cases that hold up through the full arc of litigation.
For clients defending against trademark infringement claims, we challenge the likelihood of confusion analysis, assert applicable defenses including fair use and prior use, and build the case that the defendant’s mark and the plaintiff’s mark can coexist in the marketplace without the confusion the plaintiff is claiming, drawing on our experience on both sides of these disputes to identify and exploit the weaknesses in the infringement case against us.
Copyright Litigation
What is it?
Copyright infringement occurs when someone reproduces, distributes, displays, or creates derivative works from protected creative work without authorization, and the damages available to a copyright owner who has registered their work before infringement occurs can be substantial. Statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement, combined with the availability of attorney’s fees for prevailing parties, make copyright litigation economically significant in ways that other intellectual property disputes are not. For copyright owners who have maintained a diligent registration program, the legal framework provides powerful tools for holding infringers accountable.
Copyright disputes also arise in a wide range of contexts that don’t always look like traditional infringement cases at first glance. Software copyright disputes, work-for-hire ownership questions, licensing boundary disputes, and the increasingly complex intersection of copyright with artificial intelligence and digital content all present copyright issues that require careful legal analysis and a thorough understanding of both the doctrinal framework and the technical context in which the dispute arises.
How we can help:
We handle copyright infringement litigation for creators and businesses, pursuing claims that hold infringers accountable and defending against allegations where the use is lawful or the claimed copyright is not enforceable as asserted. For clients pursuing infringement claims, that means establishing the ownership and registration of the copyright, documenting the infringement with the specificity that supports a damages case, and building the argument for willfulness that maximizes the statutory damages available when the infringement was knowing and deliberate.
For clients defending against copyright claims, we challenge the validity and scope of the claimed copyright, assert applicable defenses including fair use and license, and contest the damages calculations that copyright plaintiffs frequently overstate, drawing on our experience on both sides of these disputes to build the most effective defense available on the facts.
IP Licensing Disputes
What is it?
IP licensing disputes arise when the parties to a licensing agreement disagree about the scope of the license, the royalties owed, whether the agreement has been breached, or what happens when the relationship ends. Licensing agreements are among the more complex contracts in commercial practice, involving grant clauses that define the scope of the licensed rights, royalty provisions that determine how compensation is calculated and audited, representations and warranties about the validity and ownership of the licensed IP, and termination provisions that govern what happens to the license and the relationship when things go wrong.
The disputes that arise from licensing agreements tend to reflect the ambiguities and gaps in the original drafting, which is one of the strongest arguments for getting these agreements right at the outset. But even well-drafted licensing agreements give rise to disputes when the commercial relationship they govern evolves in ways the parties didn’t anticipate, when the licensed IP turns out to be more or less valuable than either party expected, or when one party believes the other is not living up to the obligations the agreement requires.
How we can help:
We represent licensors and licensees in IP licensing disputes, bringing a thorough understanding of both the legal dimensions of licensing law and the commercial realities of the relationships these agreements govern. For licensors, that means enforcing the scope limitations of the license, pursuing royalties that are owed and not being paid, and protecting the IP from uses that exceed the grant. For licensees, it means defending against scope claims that overreach, challenging royalty calculations that don’t reflect the actual terms of the agreement, and protecting the right to use licensed IP that the business depends on.
Licensing disputes often involve significant business relationships that both parties have an interest in preserving, and we advise clients on the full range of resolution options including negotiated amendments and restructured arrangements that address the underlying dispute without destroying the value of the licensing relationship itself.
Software & Technology IP Disputes
What is it?
Software and technology disputes involve some of the most complex and rapidly evolving areas of intellectual property law, from code ownership and software licensing to platform liability, data rights, and the increasingly contested intersection of IP law with artificial intelligence. The legal framework that applies to software and technology IP was developed in an environment that looks very different from the one that exists today, and courts continue to work through the application of copyright, trade secret, patent, and contract law to technology products and relationships that didn’t exist when those legal frameworks were created.
Software copyright disputes often turn on questions about the scope of protection for functional elements of code, the application of the merger doctrine to software that can only be expressed in limited ways, and the work-for-hire and ownership questions that arise when multiple parties contributed to the development of a product. Trade secret disputes in the technology context frequently involve forensic analysis of source code, development histories, and the technical evidence that establishes whether confidential information was actually misappropriated or independently developed.
How we can help:
We represent clients in software and technology IP disputes, bringing the legal sophistication and technical understanding these cases require to protect our clients’ rights and their businesses. That means working with qualified technical experts to understand and explain the technology at issue in terms that courts and juries can engage with, building the legal case that applies the right IP framework to the specific facts of the dispute, and pursuing the remedies that actually address the harm rather than just the ones that are easiest to quantify.
For clients on both sides of these disputes, we bring experience in the full range of IP theories that apply to software and technology, which allows us to evaluate the strongest available positions across copyright, trade secret, and contract law rather than defaulting to a single theory that may not be the best fit for the facts. The technology IP landscape continues to evolve quickly, and we stay current on the legal developments that affect how these disputes are decided.