Intellectual Property Law

The Liu Law Firm offers expertise in the following areas of Intellectual Property Law:

• Patents
• Trademarks
• Copyrights
• International Practice
• Trade Secrets
  

The Liu Law Firm works diligently to protect our clients' interests in all phases of litigation. The firm's litigators have enjoyed tremendous success. The firm assumes whatever litigation role best serves the client: by advising clients on the potential benefits and risks of a lawsuit, the firm's litigators assist their clients in making informed business decisions at every stage of litigation.

If a case cannot be settled or won by a dispositive motion, Long Z. Liu pursues the case through trial and appeal. The firm's success rate at trial, and in recovering lawyer's fees from opposing parties, demonstrates an ability to advise clients prudently as to whether a case should be settled or taken to trial.

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Trademark/Brand Protection and Enforcement

Long Z. Liu has one of the strongest trademark practices in the United States. The firm's trademark practice involves protecting U.S. clients' trademark rights worldwide, and protecting the U.S. trademark rights of foreign companies. In the U.S., trademarks and service marks can include:

• Words
• Designs
• Logos
• "Trade Dress" (such as product packaging and product shapes)

The U.S. has a three-tiered trademark system of common law, state, and federal trademark rights. Consequently, a thorough trademark search can be one of the most complicated areas of the trademark practice. As a screening tool, the firm can quickly conduct various in-house computerized searches. More thorough searches are available in a matter of days through specialized search firms in the U.S. and abroad.

In most cases, a federal application can be filed electronically, the same day as requested. In appropriate situations, state trademark registrations can also be obtained. Through searches, watching services, and private investigations, the firm is often able to detect infringers and counterfeiters at an early stage, thus permitting swift action to prevent the pirating of valuable trademark rights, both in the U.S. and abroad.

The firm also has appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in inter partes actions, such as oppositions, cancellations and concurrent rights proceedings. In such proceedings, the firm's trademark litigation lawyers represent numerous clients in trademark infringement lawsuits, many of which have resulted in court decisions published in law reports and available for public review. The firm also has a practice in trademark licensing, unfair competition, trade dress and false advertising.

International Practice

The Liu Law Firm's intellectual property law practice has a global perspective, and has experience in many countries.

The firm handles the foreign intellectual property matters of its domestic clients through a worldwide network of foreign lawyers and agents. The firm has established close relationships with foreign practitioners and can call upon experts in a particular country to promptly service the Firm's U.S. clients' needs. Members of the Firm regularly travel abroad to protect their clients' rights in foreign countries; maintain relationships with foreign associates, and to keep abreast of local developments. These goals are also supported by active participation in all of the leading international intellectual property law organizations. The Firm also has many clients in foreign countries and provides for them its full range of intellectual property law services throughout the United States.

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Trade Secrets

Long Z. Liu assists its clients in establishing confidentiality procedures and in determining the appropriate means of protecting trade secrets. The Firm is experienced in drafting a wide variety of agreements for the protection of trade secrets, such as non-disclosure agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements, invention development agreements, manufacturing agreements, and licensing agreements.

Many types of information can be the subject of trade secret protection: trade secret protection sometimes is more desirable than patents (or other forms of intellectual property protection) that may require public disclosure. Problems commonly faced by clients include the misappropriation and unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets by former employees, vendors, contractors and competing businesses. Protection of trade secrets embodied in computer programs is often an important part of a client's intellectual property protection program. The usual steps taken to protect these trade secret rights include:

• The use of licensing agreements with confidentiality requirements
• Non-disclosure agreements for third party developers
• Distribution of the software in executable form only
• Heightened security at the place of storage of the source code copies

Further, U.S. Copyright registration is usually available for computer programs without disclosing any trade secrets. The U.S. Copyright Office has specifically recognized the importance of trade secrets in computer programs and has promulgated regulations that provide for several deposit copy options that involve the submission of only a portion of the entire code.

The protection of trade secrets and the avoidance of infringement of the trade secrets of others are important aspects of the firm's practice.

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