Intellectual Property
Overview
With over forty years’ experience developing and safeguarding client’s intellectual property rights, Heston Morton’s intellectual property attorneys have navigated the complicated U.S. and international arenas of intellectual property rights. Whether securing patent protection for inventions, trademark protection for brand names, copyright protection for creative works, or safeguarding trade secrets, our team has assisted in developing and positioning client’s IP portfolios to generate over $1.5 billion in value.
Our role is client-centric and multifaceted. Often, we coordinate closely with HM’s corporate practice group to conduct due diligence reviews for mergers, acquisitions, financing and investment transactions, assessing the extent of IP protection and value to each business enterprise. This synergistic and strategic coordination often brings perspectives to light that could otherwise be overlooked.
What Sets Us Apart
HM intellectual property attorneys cover the waterfront of intellectual properties, meaning intangible creations of the human mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, names, images and symbols used in commerce rights in human creative and inventive endeavors. In doing so, we navigate within IP legal systems to foster creativity and innovation such that the interests of innovators and the wider public interest are balanced.
Patents
Our patent practice has tremendous depth and experience. Heston Morton’s role is not only to determine the extent of protection to which the patent owner is entitled, but also to fashion patent claims strategically, taking into account existing art, in order to truly advance – and enhance — the owner’s business objectives. We provide invaluable advice regarding utility patents on a wide variety of inventions, such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, machines, processes, or uses, as well as design patents on ornamental designs of manufactured articles (e.g., the design of a Coca-Cola bottle).
Copyrights
HM’s IP attorneys also protect creators with respect to their literary and artistic work, ranging from books, music, photographs, paintings, sculpture and films to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps and technical drawings.
Trademarks
Trademark protection is another area on which our IP and transactional attorneys consult with one another, beginning with naming of newly formed entities, to promote corporate identity and distinctiveness of goods and services in terms of words, logos, and/or designs used in commerce.
Trade Secrets
Trade secrets are intellectual property rights covering confidential information that obtains its value from being kept secret, sometimes referred to as the “secret sauce”. Because these rights may not entitle owners to also secure other IP rights such as patents, we develop critical programs and procedures enabling our clients to establish ownership of trade secrets and to maintain their secrecy
