251-217-9733
Intellectual Property Litigation
Somebody is using what you built. What happens next depends heavily on what you do first.
When IP Rights Get Enforced
Intellectual property litigation is the enforcement or defense of rights in trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets, through demand letters, negotiated resolution, or court.
Most infringement never reaches a courtroom. The great majority is resolved by a letter, because most infringement is careless rather than deliberate and most infringers stop when asked properly. What decides the outcome is usually whether the rights being asserted are actually strong, and whether the first communication was drafted by someone who understood the consequences of sending it.
The cases that do proceed tend to involve a competitor who knew exactly what they were doing, or a defendant who believes your rights are weaker than you think.
Disputes We Handle
Trademark infringement
Enforcement against confusingly similar marks, and defense where a claim against you overreaches.
Copyright infringement
Unauthorized use of creative work, software, content, photography, and materials.
Cease-and-desist
Drafting, sending, and responding, on both sides of the letter.
Trade secret misappropriation
Departing employees, competitors, and the confidential information that left with them. See Trade Secret Litigation.
Patent infringement
We litigate infringement claims. Patent prosecution goes through network patent counsel.
Domain and brand abuse
Cybersquatting, counterfeit listings, and marketplace enforcement.
Licensing disputes
Where a licensee exceeds scope, stops paying, or continues after termination.
Defense of infringement claims
Including where a claimant's rights are weaker than asserted, or the use was legitimate.
Sound familiar?
How We Approach It
Test the right before asserting it
The first question is not whether they are copying you. It is whether the right you would be asserting holds up. Asserting a weak mark aggressively is how a plaintiff ends up defending a cancellation action.
Resolve it with a letter where possible
Most infringement stops when addressed properly. Litigation is expensive, public, and slow, and is worth it only where the harm justifies it.
Price the harm honestly
Some infringement genuinely costs you customers. Some is irritating and costs you nothing. We will tell you which, including when the answer is to let it go.
Who Does This Work
Jordan W Gerheim
Trademark and copyright disputes, cease-and-desist work, enforcement, and patent infringement litigation (alongside the registration and brand strategy work on the Boardroom side).
Benjamin N. Kearns
Business and contract litigation where IP disputes overlap with competitor, employee, and partner claims.
Before You Send That Cease-and-Desist
It feels like the obvious first move. Sometimes it is the expensive one.
It can start the lawsuit you were avoiding
A demand letter can give the recipient grounds to file first, in their forum, seeking a declaration that they are not infringing. You wanted a letter; you got a lawsuit in another state.
It puts your rights on trial
Assert a mark and the other side will examine whether it is valid and enforceable. A weak registration is safer unasserted than tested.
It can go public
Aggressive letters get posted. A disproportionate demand against a small operator is a reputational event, not a legal victory.
Tone determines the response
The same demand can produce compliance or entrenchment depending entirely on how it is written. Most recipients are not villains and will stop if given a way to.
The deadline you set binds you
Setting a deadline and then doing nothing when it passes tells the recipient your position is soft. Do not set one you are not prepared to act on.
How These Matters Are Billed
Want a number for your situation?
Related Services
Frequently Asked Questions
Someone is using a name like ours. Can we stop them?
It depends on your rights, their priority, how similar the marks are, and whether the two businesses actually compete for the same customers. A registered mark used in commerce first is a strong position. An unregistered mark used only locally against a business in a different field and a different state is often a weaker one than the owner assumes. We will assess the right before recommending action.
We received a cease-and-desist. Do we have to comply?
Not automatically, and you should not respond before it has been reviewed. Plenty of demand letters overstate the sender's rights, misstate the law, or set deadlines with no basis. Some are entirely valid. Either way the response frames the negotiation, and a hasty concession is difficult to withdraw.
Do you handle patent cases?
We litigate patent infringement. We do not prosecute patent applications in-house. That goes through network patent counsel, whose work we coordinate rather than simply refer. Infringement litigation and patent prosecution are genuinely different disciplines and it is worth being clear about which is which.
How much does IP litigation cost?
Less than people fear at the demand stage, and more than they hope once it is contested. Most matters resolve at the letter stage for a defined and modest fee. Full litigation is expensive enough that it should only be pursued where the harm is real, which is why the honest assessment comes first.
An employee left and took our client list. Is that an IP claim?
Possibly, as trade secret misappropriation, if the information had genuine commercial value and you took reasonable steps to keep it confidential. It frequently overlaps with restrictive covenant claims and breach of duty claims against the former employee. Trade Secret Litigation covers this in more depth.
Related Insights
Send Us What They Sent You
Or send us what they are doing. Book a Risk-Free Strategy Session and we will tell you what your rights are actually worth before you spend anything enforcing them.