Morris, Manning & Martin's Intellectual Property lawyers counsel companies and organizations in all phases of intellectual property law, including the identification and protection of their technology through the effective use of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. We work with clients across the globe ranging in size from emerging companies to Fortune 500 companies, in locations ranging from China and Taiwan to Europe and the United States. Our client service and skills are evidenced by the practice's ranking in Chambers USA 2011, a leading professional services ranking publication.

Key Services:

• Copyrights
• Design arounds & engineering input
• Enforcement & protection of rights
• IP development & acquisition
• IP due diligence & assessment
• IP strategies
• Licensing
• Non-infringement & invalidity options
• Patent application and prosecution
• Patent litigation
• Portfolio management & maintenance
• Trade secrets
• Trademarks

Subject Matter Technical Experts

Our patent lawyers and professionals are scientists and engineers who understand our clients' technology. We understand complex technologies in a variety of scientific fields, including computer software and hardware, electrical, mechanical, chemical and material sciences, physics, manufacturing systems and processes, nanotechnology, business methods and systems, biotechnology and medical devices. With nine Chinese/Mandarin speaking lawyers and professionals and four of those holding PhD's we have international market-leading experience both academically and in the industry. Our goal is to consistently execute on the behalf of our clients to ensure they stay one-step-ahead.

Enforcement & Licensing Capabilities

We help our clients enforce and develop strategies to enforce their intellectual property, when necessary, and we help negotiate licenses and similar arrangement, when that is an option. We help our clients understand the intellectual property rights of others, we help design around and avoid infringement of such intellectual property rights, we negotiate and obtain licenses when that is necessary or beneficial to the business, and we vigorously defend claims of infringement when no other option is available.

Litigation Legal Services

Our IP Litigation Practice represents clients in a full range of intellectual property disputes including patent, software and literary copyright and trademark infringement, and misappropriation of trade secrets. We represent clients wherever the dispute may arise and have appeared as lead counsel in the courts of more than 35 states and U.S. territories, as well as Asia, Canada and Europe. As an example of our international success, we successfully litigated and settled the first trade dress litigation for a Chinese company in U.S. courts.

Patent Legal Services

Our lawyers, patent agents and specialists provide clients' a broad spectrum of patent services. We are registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and have prepared and prosecuted more than 5000 patent applications in a variety of areas, including telecommunications, optics, mechanical and electronic devices, nanotechnologies, liquid crystal display devices, MEMS devices, lasers, quantum spin devices, semiconductors, biotechnologies and various medical devices. According to recent figures from Intellectual Property Today, a respected trade publication, it shows that the number of U.S. patents issued where Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP is listed as the legal representative increased by 12.4% in 2007 to 2008. Additionally, we have completed over 1400 patent applications for Chinese companies doing business in the U.S.

Our IP lawyers are architects of patent laws and regulations. We regularly draft, prepare and prosecute patent applications, including reexamination, reissue, and interference cases. We assist our clients in the filing and prosecution of patent applications abroad, particularly in Asia and Europe. With offices in Beijing, China and Taipei, Taiwan, we have a strong presence in the eastern countries and have cross border connections to foreign associate lawyers. Additionally, we counsel our clients with:

• Patent searching and watching services in various areas of technology. We provide searching services for patentability, infringement, state-of-the-art, assignee, validity and patent watching.
• Patent application, preparation and filing.
• Patent prosecution and patent appeals.
• Patent portfolio maintenance.
• Patent reissue and reexamination.
• Counsel in the development and commercialization of technology to help clients avoid infringement of third-party rights, as well as enforcement of patent rights against others.
• Render opinions on patentability, infringement, and validity.
• Perform IP property audits and due diligence investigations.
• Enforce and defend against patent infringement claims.

Copyright Legal Services

Morris, Manning & Martin lawyers have developed extensive experience in the areas of copyrighting of directories and databases; copyright protection for computer software and web page design; copyright issues relating to music, theater, audio-video recordings and fine arts; copyright issues relating to architectural plans and copyright protection of television and radio station programming. Our lawyers are highly qualified to assist clients with any of their copyright needs including (but not limited to), copyright registration; opinions in connection with charges of copyright infringement or with the evaluation of possible assertion of copyright infringement by others of a client's copyrights; drafting and negotiating copyright license agreements, as well as evaluating and revising license agreements presented by third parties; provide assignee searches for clients that locate copyrights owned by particular entities; copyright audits and due diligence reviews; and international copyright protection.

Trademark Legal Services

Morris, Manning & Martin's Trademark Practice covers the full array of trademark legal services. We have the knowledge base to handle both local and international trademark matters. Additionally, we assist our clients with trademark appeals, trademark searching and watching services, trademark application preparation and filing (both federal and state), oppositions and cancellations, trademark and brand name selection, trademark maintenance, trademark prosecution and trademark screening and watching services.