USA has one of the most advanced intellectual property legislations in the world. At the moment when production of many goods it transferred to third countries, intellectual property becomes the main product and main asset of many American companies.

The notion of “intellectual property” covers the whole range of legal institutions, the most important of which are trade secrets, patent law, copyright and trade marks. Trade secret legislation and patent law facilitate research and development of new ideas. Copyright facilitates creation of works of literature, art and music, as well as computer software. Trade marks law “links” products to their manufacturers. Recently, the whole range of new forms of intellectual property developed.

Copyright lawyers deal with many issues. Among them:

• selection and registration of brands (trade marks) and firm names,
• consulting on copyright issues,
• assistance in patenting technologies, sale and purchase of technologies and licensing,
• representation in courts,
• representing the interests of owners of domain names in WIPO(World Intellectual Property Organization),
• pre-trial (claims or sending cease-and-desist letters) settlement of disputes and carrying out negotiations, as well as hearings and arbitrations regarding domain names according to UDRP system,
• consulting on all issues related to intellectual property in the Internet (e.g., using a brand for selling sponsored lists shown in results of Internet search engines),
• consulting on the issues of application of US jurisdiction and jurisdiction of separate states to web-sites, the servers of which are situated beyond the territory of the state or the country,
• writing “website terms of use,” “privacy policies, ” “trademark guidelines” etc.,
• trade marks registration,
• preparing objections and appeals in case of registration refusal,
• international registration of trade marks in chosen countries-members of Madrid Agreement on International Registration of Trade Marks (based on previously registered or applied for registration trade marks).
• consulting regarding the possibility and ensuring protection of the created trade mark in the USA, countries of Western and Eastern Europe, Asia;
• assistance in getting consent of owners of identical or similar marks for registration of the trade mark if any conflicting registrations exist,
• assistance in negotiations, preparation of license agreements, including determination of the amount of license payments (royalties) for using rights for objects of intellectual property;
• carrying out all the necessary legal actions aimed at cessation of illegal use of trade marks (imitations, copying, using similar confusing marks at competing products or in relation to competing services, preventing import of pirate goods),
• substantiation of requests for reparation of damages resulting from illegal use of intellectual property,
• trade marks appraisal (e.g. during company sale)
• registering copyrights in the USA, countries of Western and Eastern Europe, Asia;
• copyrighting designs of web-sites, computer software, works of literature (texts, stories, novels, poems, digests), music pieces.
• preparation and registration of license agreements and copyright transfer agreements between an author and an employer,
• assistance in getting permits for using copyright objects from authors -ho are not US residents,
• information about the author and the copyright status of the work,
• patenting inventions in the USA following the international PCT procedure,
• all types of patent and information search covering databases of patents in the USA, Europe and Japan.
• consulting on protection of intellectual property objects that cannot be patented (know how),
• developing comprehensive trade secrets protection programs,
• developing sets of internal documents and confidentiality agreements with employees, including the documents necessary for ensuring protection of trade secrets after employees resign or are fired.
• consulting on the issues of reparation of damages caused by trade secret disclosure,
• company audit aimed at making an inventory of intellectual property objects.

We can continue this long list. It is important to understand that for many companies intangible assets have greater value than any tangible assets, so it is necessary to ensure a reliable legal protection of the intellectual property objects.

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