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Businesses often think of trademarks as a legal formality or a brand identity tool. But collaborative research conducted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that trademarks are far more than just symbols. The results of the research reveal that trademarks play a critical role in business growth, survival, … Read more

A highly effective—yet often underutilized—tool in the intellectual property enforcement arsenal is recording trademarks and copyrights with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). While registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) or the U.S. Copyright Office provides the foundation for protection, recording those rights with CBP empowers the agency to take direct action … Read more

In the United States, the law governing patent rights includes provisions designed not only to protect inventors and patent owners but also to provide public notice of those rights. One such provision is the patent marking requirement, which directly affects a patent owner’s ability to recover damages from an infringer. Under 35 U.S.C. 287(a), a … Read more

Safeguarding Trade Secrets The law protects trade secrets from misappropriation, that is, the acquisition of a trade secret by improper means. “Improper means” includes theft, bribery, misrepresentation, breach or inducement of a breach of a confidential relationship or duty to maintain secrecy, or espionage through electronic or other means. A trade secret is defined as … Read more

Personal Individual Information (PII), also known as “personal data” or “personal information,” is information that identifies, relates to, describes or that is linked or reasonably linkable to an identifiable individual.  Certain types of PII are categorized as sensitive information. Sensitive data can usually only be processed with the individual’s explicit consent, unless the data is … Read more

Non-disclosure agreements (“NDAs”) create contractual relationships between a party that has confidential or trade secret information and another who will be given access to that information. NDAs can be unilateral or mutual. An NDA may be a standalone agreement or exist in another document, such as an employment agreement, an independent contractor agreement, an invention … Read more