Trademarks

Trademarks: Protecting Your Goodwill and Link to Your Customers

There is a simple reason why trademarks are so important to your business: they are vessels of goodwill and protect an important link with your customers, a communication conduit that identifies your business as the source of origin of your particular goods or services. Trademarks can also convey various attributes and information about your business and your business’ reputation, goods and/or services. Protecting, maintaining and enhancing this valuable intellectual property asset can build and strengthen your goodwill and link with your customers and protect your business, brand and the goods and/or services used in connection with the trademark.

We help our clients in establishing, maintaining and protecting their trademark rights. We further provide our client’s with guidance and help in formulating and implementing strategies for effective trademark portfolio development and management to maximize and protect the value of their brands. By working with you to fully understand your business, goods and/or services and mark, we help in determining and implementing the best course of action to protect your brands in an effective and pragmatic manner.

Trademark Services

The intellectual property attorneys in our Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Atlanta, Georgia offices have extensive experience and expertise in trademark law and will provide you with help in a full spectrum of trademark services.

Trademark law is complicated. We simplify it for you by using our experience in all aspects of the field:

• Advising you on your established marks and developing new trademark rights under federal, state and common law.
• Consulting on selecting and assessing legally protectable trademarks under federal, state and common law.
• Conducting appropriate trademark searching and clearance analysis and consulting and preparing opinions on trademark registerability and use availability.
• Preparing and filing trademark applications for federal, state and international registrations
• Prosecuting trademark applications to registration, domestically and internationally.
• Handling trademark proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, including registration appeals and opposition and cancellation proceedings.
• Advising and helping you in maintaining trademark rights, including advising on the proper use of marks, developing and implementing internal and external trademark usage guidelines to protect the strength and goodwill associated with the trademarks, and taking appropriate enforcement action against third parties that misuse marks.
• Advising and helping you in maintaining registrations, including consulting on the proper use of your marks; and compliance with registration maintenance requirements and formalities.
• Due diligence involved in mergers and acquisitions.
• Preparing and advising on IP transactions & agreements, including negotiating, drafting and enforcing licenses and purchasing agreements for your trademarks.
• Advising you on implementing a trademark policing and enforcement strategy, monitoring the marketplace for infringements and misuse, and investigate suspected infringements and misuse.
• Advising and helping you with trademark portfolio assessment and audits, including inventory of existing marks and associated registrations and applications, assessment and update of ownership and chain-of-title of marks, assessment of use status of marks, Identification of marks no longer of business interest, and assessment of existing and potential trademark conflicts, of trademark agreements, of internal trademark records and trademark policies and procedures.

We work collaboratively with you to protect and enforce your brands while reducing the risk of litigation. Our integrated approach to trademark law enables you to develop and maintain a successful strategy to manage and protect your trademarks.