Intellectual Property Litigation

Intellectual Property Litigation

Grellas Shah’s litigators have consistently achieved favorable outcomes for their clients in IP litigation, including claims brought for misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition. We have particularly deep experience in trade secret litigation, and have both prosecuted and defended numerous trade secret disputes between technology companies. Intellectual property litigation can become complicated quickly. A variety of different intellectual property laws can come into play depending upon the unique circumstances of your case. Some of these laws include:

• Copyright: Federal law prohibits the unauthorized use of original creative works (such as writing, painting, software, etc.) when that work meets the minimum requirements for copyright protection.
• Trademark: In many instances, brand names have easily identifiable names, logos, and slogans. These are often protected under trademark laws, which account for elements such as consumer awareness, the geographic footprint of the brand, and the product itself.
• Patents: Patent laws protect new inventions, including new products, processes, or designs. The patent owner has the right to protect others from producing, using, distributing, or importing the protected item.
• Trade Secrets: Trade secrets include sensitive business information that can give one company an advantage over competitors. It can be a recipe, a production method, a marketing plan, or anything else used in the development of the company’s product. These laws are designed to protect sensitive business information.
• Right of Publicity: Right of publicity protects from the unauthorized use of a person’s image or name for commercial purposes, including marketing your product. It is designed to protect the image or name of the individual. Unlike many other intellectual property laws, there is no federal protection with the right to publicity. It is covered by state laws, which can vary from one state to another.
• Trade Dress: Trade dress laws protect the characteristics or visual appearance of a product and its packaging, which can be easily recognizable to many consumers.

Grellas Shah’s litigators have consistently achieved favorable outcomes for their clients in IP litigation, including claims brought for misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition. We have particularly deep experience in trade secret litigation, and have both prosecuted and defended numerous trade secret disputes between technology companies.

Representative Engagements:

• Defended three former employees of a global leader in integration and analytics software against claims of misappropriation of trade secrets.
• Represented a financial advisory firm with over $300m in assets under management in a claim for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duties, and unfair competition against two former portfolio managers.
• Represented a leading independent distributor of television and movie programming in a lawsuit for copyright infringement, false advertising and unfair competition against a streaming movie and television platform provider.
• Represented early-stage company that offered iPad-based electronic flight bag solutions against lawsuit by competitor alleging copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition.
• Currently representing data analytics company in litigation against former employees for misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of duty of loyalty and breach of contract.