Patent

Womble Carlyle's patent attorneys are included in the Intellectual Practice Group (IP), which comprises more than 60 attorneys handling intellectual property matters, including patent prosecution and litigation, antitrust, distribution, and trade practice matters, including all related litigation. While the attorneys of Womble Carlyle's IP Group are located in each of the Firm's 14 offices, the high technology focus of the Firm allows the entire IP Group to work very effectively as a single unit.

Attorneys in the IP Group have extensive experience in all aspects of intellectual property, representing international, national, regional and local concerns. The professional legal representation of our clients is complemented by our very personal involvement with our clients and our willingness to be flexible in the manner in which we approach our clients’ projects.

The experience of our lawyers extends to all aspects of domestic and foreign intellectual property law, including:

• Detailed patent investigations and analyses in all technical areas, including providing opinions on questions of patentability, infringement, design around, state-of-the-art, and due diligence studies;
• Procurement of U.S. and foreign patents in all technical areas, as well as trademark and copyright registrations;
• Enforcement of intellectual property rights including patent, trademark and copyright litigation, licensing, negotiation and arbitration;
• Reports and opinions on the registrability of trademarks, logos and designs, including trade dress protection;
• General client counseling regarding confidentiality agreements, government research funding, university-industry relations, license agreements, corporate sponsored research contracts, development agreements, joint ventures, due diligence strategies, technology transfer agreements, software protection, and employment agreements; and
• Technical assistance to general business counsel, in-house counsel, technology transfer managers, inventors, and business investors on all aspects of intellectual property, its scope and strength, title, contract and licensing matters and employment contracts, disclosures, invention submission procedures and intellectual property audits.