Intellectual Property

Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke LLP brings together skills and experience in corporate transactions, litigation and trademark prosecution to provide our clients with result-oriented and responsive representation in the field of intellectual property. As a result of many years of experience with intellectual property related matters, we are able to provide our domestic and international clients with particularly knowledgeable and practical counseling.

We strive to keep our clients informed of new court decisions, pending legislation, and regulatory developments that may affect their activitiesin traditional and emerging fields. The firm is actively engaged in devising contractual provisions to protect our clients’ interests and to provide the flexibility necessary to cope with the rapid pace and turn-around that intellectual property and technology procurement matters often require.

New Media

The move to electronic digital delivery of information represents the most revolutionary change in communications since Gutenberg. As new media have evolved, so has the firm’s practice. Today, the firm is a leader in handling innovative transactions, litigation, and regulatory matters for pioneering companies reinventing the way information is communicated.

Copyrights & Trademarks

Satterlee assists both domestic and foreign clients with their copyright, trademark, and service mark needs in the United States and internationally.  We work with clients ranging from start-ups looking to protect their first mark to multinational corporations with vast portfolios.  We tailor our services to meet a client’s needs, whether that means supporting an in-house team, or handling all aspects of a portfolio.  We help clients select a mark; investigate the use of similar marks by others; undertake and maintain federal and state registrations of marks; and initiate and defend opposition and cancellation proceedings in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  We also assist clients in protecting their marks worldwide.

We also negotiate and draft licensing agreements and transfers of marks and copyrights

Litigation

The Satterlee Stephens Burke & Burke intellectual property practice includes a corps of accomplished trial lawyers, with extensive trial and appellate experience in actions involving copyright, trademark and trade dress.

Our firm has been lead counsel in landmark cases:

•Establishing the scope of copyright protection accorded to reference works and computerized databases;

•Defining the scope of actions based on the use of “sound-alikes” or “look-alikes” in advertising;

•Delineating the extent to which an artist or performer has a legally protectible interest in a distinctive personal “style”;

•Clarifying the interrelationship among the Copyright Act, the Lanham Act, and United States antitrust laws;

•Establishing the scope of media insurance policies.

Technology Law

For corporations of all kinds, we have prepared hardware purchasing and leasing agreements, software development agreements, software license agreements, facilities management agreements, software consultancy agreements, outsourcing agreements, hardware and database maintenance agreements and contracts for transportation and installation of main-frame computers.

We have also prepared multi-media software development contracts, joint venture agreements with software publishers, and database license agreements. Additionally, we provide independent contractor agreements with programmers, advice concerning the legality of programs that “piggy-back” on other publishers’ programs, copyright and trademark registration services, and counseling on the termination of long-term software development contracts. We have represented a wide variety of clients in computer technology transactions and litigation including consumer product manufacturers, transnational businesses requiring global data management, leading universities, financial data companies, product information publishers, and traditional media entities such as print publishers and broadcasters.

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