Practice Areas
Patents protect any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter or improvement. United States Patents are valuable business assets because they give owners a constitutionally sanctioned seventeen year monopoly to exclusively make, use and sell the patented invention. Nydegger & Associates prepares and vigorously prosecutes patent applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, conducts patent searches, and renders patent validity opinions.
Trademarks are words and symbols which help consumers identify the source of goods and quality of services. Nydegger & Associates safeguards trademarks and service marks by conducting searches, counseling clients about perfecting registrability of a mark, and preparing and prosecuting trademark filings in the United States Trademark Office and state trademark offices. Trade and service marks also may become valuable, and because a mark may be renewed for extended periods, registration of marks is another significant business decision.
Copyrights are another form of intellectual property protected by the United States Constitution. Copyrights forbid copying the expression of a protected work by anyone else during the copyright term. Literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and computer software products are copyrightable.
Trade Secrets are an alternative to patent or copyright protection, but only if secrecy can in fact be maintained by the inventor or business making the invention. Nydegger & Associates offers significant counseling about what technology should be handled as trade secrets, and how to maintain secrecy while commercially exploiting the technology.
Technology Transfer from an inventor or owner of intellectual property to another party for commercial development of the invention requires an artfully drafted legal contract, like Licenses and Assignments, Feasibility Studies, Development Contracts, Non-Disclosure Agreements, and a host of related contractual documents. The firm has extensive experience in these matters.
Foreign Intellectual Property Rights are also valuable. The firm helps clients develop business strategies for acquiring foreign intellectual property rights. To further these strategies, the firm is associated with various foreign intellectual property law firms throughout the world.