Intellectual Property & Technology

The RW Intellectual Property and Technology practice offers clients a complete range of legal services for acquiring, enforcing and commercially exploiting intellectual property (“IP”) assets.

Effective IP Services for Small to Mid Cap Businesses

RW offers vision, savvy, and ability to help your company leverage its IP on as wide a scale as possible. Our services include IP counseling and portfolio analysis, tailored IP agreements, ranging from licensing to trade secret protection, patent prosecution, and trademark and copyright registration. We pride ourselves on being readily available for the quick telephone question as well as the long term, big picture matters.

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING

We handle the entire spectrum of technology licensing arrangements. These include complex ventures ranging from standard licensing deals to joint development of software, applications, and systems. We negotiate and advise clients with respect to software licenses, equipment leases, software development and distribution agreements, and network services and data acquisition agreements.

TRADEMARK

We assist clients in obtaining, protecting and enforcing trademarks. Our services include trademark clearance searches and reviews, preparing opinion letters, and filing and prosecuting trademark applications. In addition, we handle a variety of administrative proceedings accompanying prosecution and defense of trademarks. For existing trademarks, we provide monitoring and policing services to ensure that our clients’ property is not diluted, infringed, or misused by third parties. Through general trademark counseling, we manage our clients’ trademark portfolios and leverage their value through licensing and related intellectual property. Where domain names are concerned, we are aggressive and well versed in defending and pursuing trademark rights, including litigation and arbitration under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy.

E-COMMERCE AND WEB

Web sites have become the primary gateway for many business transactions, encompassing everything from retail sales to professional services. As a result, companies have become dependent on large commercial databases that often contain personal and sensitive information. The rapidly evolving U.S. and international privacy landscape presents real challenges to companies seeking to exploit these databases. RW advises clients and drafts suitable privacy and data use policies given this landscape. The firm also assists clients in obtaining third-party privacy certification from entities such as TrustE. We also advise our clients on applicable international e-commerce standards.

RW counsels its clients on the full range of issues involved in developing and maintaining a web site. When dealing with in-house web site development, we assist clients in securing any necessary third-party licenses for content or technology. When our clients outsource such functions, we negotiate agreements to ensure they receive the services they expect and the ownership rights they require. For smooth business operations through a company’s web site, RW provides its clients effective, concise, and site friendly legal disclaimers, terms and conditions of use, and “click-wrap” agreements. RW also drafts other site language including terms and conditions language for a variety of specific online services, ranging from prototypical e-commerce applications to specialty content distribution.

OUTSOURCING

Outsourcing arrangements are often the backbone of the information technology profile for any company. The cost, scale, and time advantages offered by outsourcing make it a compelling but complex business strategy. To provide maximum predictability and clarity for all parties, we advise clients in connection with the outsourcing of all types of information technology. We negotiate and draft master service agreements and service level agreements, in addition to handling the related asset acquisitions, employment, and tax issues.

NEW MEDIA

RW provides copyright counsel to an assorted range of clients in the online, literary, entertainment, and communications industries. RW attorneys can advise clients in a range of industries, including e-commerce companies, new media startups, Internet technology companies, Web site operators, software developers, writers, recording artists, and authors. We strive to provide guidance that is sensitive to each industry’s unique and overlapping legal issues.