Enforcement
Peacock Law has the team and global professional network needed to protect and enforce its clients’ intellectual property rights anywhere in the world. Sometimes, a methodical regime of monitoring for infringement and sending cease and desist letters gets the job done. However, when formal proceedings occur, Peacock Law is ready to protect our clients’ legal interests through both judicial and administrative proceedings, whether on the side of enforcement or defense.
We don’t lose sight of the goal.
Intellectual property litigation may involve the determination of whether intellectual property rights are valid, whether another is infringing those rights, whether an agreement licensing those rights was breached, or the question of who owns those rights. Our goal is always to resolve litigation matters in a business-friendly manner, obtaining the most favorable outcome as efficiently as possible. Most matters can be resolved by agreement before formal proceedings are instituted, and once formal proceedings begin, the vast majority of cases settle at some point, often before significant discovery, motion practice or trial occurs. When settlement is not agreeable, Peacock Law is prepared and experienced to handle any stage of the formal proceedings.
Whatever the litigation is, we can be your point person.
IP rights may be enforced in federal or state courts, particularly if the goal is to stop an infringer from doing anything and/or seeking damages. IP litigation also occurs in administrative tribunals, including the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board or its Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, for example if the question is whether a patent or trademark owner was entitled to the patent or trademark in the first place. We can be your point person for any of it.
Wherever the litigation is, we can be your point person.
When a lawsuit involves intellectual property rights, it can be difficult to know where you might be sued, or where is best to sue. The choice of venue in IP litigation is nuanced and dependent on a number of factual considerations. Wherever the case, Peacock Law can be your point person. If we don’t have a litigation attorney licensed in the jurisdiction of choice, Peacock Law has a network of top notch IP litigators it works with throughout the country to get the job done efficiently.
Stop potential trademark infringers before they become a problem.
How do you know if a competitor is attempting to register a potentially confusing trademark? Unless you are actively and regularly monitoring trademark registration databases for new registration applications that are similar to your mark every other week, you probably won’t find out until it is too late. Few businesses have the time or know-how to monitor the trademark registration databases. They only find out once the infringer is well established in its infringing use of the mark or after the infringer ends up with a trademark registration, all of which seriously complicates resolving the matter.
That is why we recommend having Peacock Law monitor for registration applications of potentially confusing marks. Our search firm employs sophisticated algorithms to find potentially confusing variations of your mark that were either applied for or published on registers in those previous couple of weeks. We review those results and alert you to any mark and application that we recommend taking action against. Through this active monitoring service, we have caught numerous potential infringers early on and resolved those matters before they had time to become entrenched in their use of the mark, which made it much easier to convince them to stop.
Always look for the business opportunity.
Whether a competitor is infringing your rights or whether you have been accused of infringement, we can guide you through the analysis of determining your risk. But every dispute is also an opportunity. Some disputes have led to acquisitions or sales and happy “exits” for our clients. Sometimes disputes lead to new licensing or partnerships. What may appear to be your enemy today may actually be your greatest opportunity. We ask those questions from the beginning because we are business people that are also lawyers.