PRACTICE AREAS
- Broker-Dealer Securities
Regulations - Cooperatives, Condominiums
and Homeowners Associations - Corporate Transactions
- Financial Restructuring,
Bankruptcy & Creditors Rights - Governance & Compliance
- Hedge Funds
- Labor & Employment
- Litigation
- Patent & Intellectual Property Litigation
- Private Client Services
- Private Equity and Venture Capital
- Real Estate
Patent & Intellectual Property Litigation
Barton attorneys have handled complex patent and intellectual property cases in courts throughout the nation for clients across a wide array of industries involving cutting edge technologies and emerging principals of law. We have handled cases for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, computer, computer software, internet, media and entertainment industries. Succcessful handling of these cases requires lawyers who combine technological and legal expertise with a keen understanding of our clients' business objectives. Often we are called upon to form litigation teams involving executives, inventors, authors and other scientists who are employed by our clients, together with outside technical expert witnesses, to develop a winning game plan. Early case assessments play an increasingly critical role in successfully advising clients in these case and, thus, we work with our clients even before the commencement of litigation to carefully evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of every case.
We also work with our clients to develop reasonable projections regarding the cost (both money and time) that will be necessary to conduct each case. Further, we reevaluate these projections on a regular basis, and strive to keep our clients closely informed regarding the progress of litigations. We encourage our clients' in-house counsel or other representatives to review the day-to-day correspondence and pleadings in the litigation, and to play an active role in monitoring the pre-trial discovery process, including document production, depositions and expert discovery. In this regard, we encourage our clients at the earliest possible stage of every case to consider whether their interests would be served by utilizing alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as mediation and/or arbitration. Even if our clients reject alternative dispute resolutions at the early stages of a case, we encourage them to regularly reconsider the issue as the case progresses toward trial. More generally, we continually advise our clients to aggressively search for less expensive mechanisms to resolve intellectual property disputes.
Nonetheless, in many instances, it is necessary to request judicial intervention. Thus, when necessary, we will aggressively seek to enforce our clients' intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, trademarks, tradenames, rights of publicity, etc.) against infringers, and we will not hesitate to ask courts at the Federal or state levels (as appropriate) to expedite the proceedings and consider applications for preliminary injunctive relief. By the same token, we are prepared to defend clients who are wrongfully accused of infringement, and to proactively attack the validity and enforceability of patents and other intellectual property rights on grounds that they are obvious or anticipated by the prior art, lack enablement or operability, or were procured by so-called "inequitable conduct" (i.e. fraud on the patent and trademark office).
Although we are prepared to aggressively litigate complex intellecutal property disputes, an equally important component of our practice involves client counseling. Intellectual property litigation has become increasingly expensive and burdensome for small and medium sized companies, and, thus, we encourage our clients to seek advice from us at early stages of business development and during the ordinary course of business operations. Often, we assist our clients in identifying intellectual property rights belonging to competitors that have the potential to impede or totally disrupt our clients' operations. In such circumstances, we often assist our clients in obtaining licenses (or engaging in cross-licensing) of intellectual property rights belonging to others so as to minimize these risks. Such licensing transactions often result in substantial business efficiencies, while at the same time allowing the parties to benefit fairly from the value of their respective intellectual property rights. We pride ourselves on our ability to assist clients in such transactions and thereby navigate through the often "muddy waters" of intellectual property so as to reduce the risk of expensive litigation.
In addition, we are often called upon to assist clients in evaluating the value of intellectual property rights during the course of mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcy reorganizations and other corporate transactions. Evaluating intellectual property rights is often a crucial component of conducting "due diligence" in advance of corporate transactions, and we are prepared to assist our clients in efficiently and expeditiously conducting such evaluations.
Barton attorneys have handled complex patent and intellectual property cases in courts throughout the nation for clients across a wide array of industries involving cutting edge technologies and emerging principals of law. We have handled cases for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, computer, computer software, internet, media and entertainment industries. Succcessful handling of these cases requires lawyers who combine technological and legal expertise with a keen understanding of our clients' business objectives. Often we are called upon to form litigation teams involving executives, inventors, authors and other scientists who are employed by our clients, together with outside technical expert witnesses, to develop a winning game plan. Early case assessments play an increasingly critical role in successfully advising clients in these case and, thus, we work with our clients even before the commencement of litigation to carefully evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of every case.
We also work with our clients to develop reasonable projections regarding the cost (both money and time) that will be necessary to conduct each case. Further, we reevaluate these projections on a regular basis, and strive to keep our clients closely informed regarding the progress of litigations. We encourage our clients' in-house counsel or other representatives to review the day-to-day correspondence and pleadings in the litigation, and to play an active role in monitoring the pre-trial discovery process, including document production, depositions and expert discovery. In this regard, we encourage our clients at the earliest possible stage of every case to consider whether their interests would be served by utilizing alternative dispute resolution techniques, such as mediation and/or arbitration. Even if our clients reject alternative dispute resolutions at the early stages of a case, we encourage them to regularly reconsider the issue as the case progresses toward trial. More generally, we continually advise our clients to aggressively search for less expensive mechanisms to resolve intellectual property disputes.
Nonetheless, in many instances, it is necessary to request judicial intervention. Thus, when necessary, we will aggressively seek to enforce our clients' intellectual property rights (patents, copyrights, trademarks, tradenames, rights of publicity, etc.) against infringers, and we will not hesitate to ask courts at the Federal or state levels (as appropriate) to expedite the proceedings and consider applications for preliminary injunctive relief. By the same token, we are prepared to defend clients who are wrongfully accused of infringement, and to proactively attack the validity and enforceability of patents and other intellectual property rights on grounds that they are obvious or anticipated by the prior art, lack enablement or operability, or were procured by so-called "inequitable conduct" (i.e. fraud on the patent and trademark office).
Although we are prepared to aggressively litigate complex intellecutal property disputes, an equally important component of our practice involves client counseling. Intellectual property litigation has become increasingly expensive and burdensome for small and medium sized companies, and, thus, we encourage our clients to seek advice from us at early stages of business development and during the ordinary course of business operations. Often, we assist our clients in identifying intellectual property rights belonging to competitors that have the potential to impede or totally disrupt our clients' operations. In such circumstances, we often assist our clients in obtaining licenses (or engaging in cross-licensing) of intellectual property rights belonging to others so as to minimize these risks. Such licensing transactions often result in substantial business efficiencies, while at the same time allowing the parties to benefit fairly from the value of their respective intellectual property rights. We pride ourselves on our ability to assist clients in such transactions and thereby navigate through the often "muddy waters" of intellectual property so as to reduce the risk of expensive litigation.
In addition, we are often called upon to assist clients in evaluating the value of intellectual property rights during the course of mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcy reorganizations and other corporate transactions. Evaluating intellectual property rights is often a crucial component of conducting "due diligence" in advance of corporate transactions, and we are prepared to assist our clients in efficiently and expeditiously conducting such evaluations.
