License ● Copyright ● Trademark

Attorneys in the Chicago Area

Our Cook County lawyers at Riebandt & DeWald, P.C., offer legal services designed to help writers, inventors, and businesses protect their rights to their names, creative output, trademarks, service marks, and patents. In addition, our intellectual property lawyers understand the laws of non-traditional marks such as those involving sound and scent. Our attorneys make sure that clients are in a position to receive the full commercial value of their intellectual property. For more information about protecting intellectual property, contact our Arlington Heights attorneys at Riebandt & DeWald, P.C.

We represent people in matters such as:

Trademark registration and litigation

We help protect intellectual assets such as words, phrases, designs, symbols, sounds, and scents used to identify goods or services. We conduct a search to determine that the trademark has not been previously used. We help with registration of the trademark. We undertake litigation to stop any use of the mark by others. We develop licensing agreements to legitimize use of registered trademarks by suppliers, contractors, and resellers.

Patents

Clients with a patent on an idea or product with the US Patent Office have exclusive rights to benefit from the patented item. Inventors who learn that someone else is using their creation should consult an Illinois patent lawyer immediately to learn how exclusive rights can be restored, or how a licensing agreement can be developed to legitimize use of the patented invention.

Copyrights

Copyright protection applies to creative works, such as prose, poetry, magazine articles, advertising, films, web sites, cartoons, and anything that is in a fixed medium and exhibits a level of creativity. We help clients register copyrights when necessary and litigate on their behalf if the copyright is violated.

Trade secrets

We undertake to protect trade secrets, such as the recipe for a best selling frozen desert or the code for a video game. We develop trade secret agreements that prevent employees from selling or giving data about the product to a competitor or otherwise releasing information not readily available elsewhere. When trade secret agreements are violated, we litigate to protect or restore the value of the trade secret. We develop licensing agreements that permit the legitimate use of a trade secret.

Non-disclosure agreements

Non-disclosure agreements are often used by software companies to prevent early release of a new product. We develop such agreements for organizations, especially for those testing their products with a small group of potential buyers.