Corporate
We serve a wide range of corporate clients, from Fortune 100 companies to sole proprietorships. Our larger clients call on us to perform high-level commercial work involving the preparation and negotiation of a variety of sales, services, and strategic partnership contracts. We are well-versed in working with in-house counsel, and can efficiently provide the exact level of service that you require, whether you ask us to work behind the scenes conducting legal review and analysis or prefer that we take over a project and negotiate directly with the other side until completion of the deal.
We often assist our small business clients with corporate formation, including consultation regarding entity choice, ownership and management rights of the different owners. Especially for first-timers, we recommend an initial in-person consultation so that we can learn more about your planned business and how you intend to operate. From there, we can provide counsel on your options for entity formation, develop a plan for execution, and identify other legal issues that your particular business may have. For example, if your business plan involves hiring independent contractors, we can assist in developing a form contract for you to use with those contractors. Our services are always tailored specifically to each client, and we work closely with each client in order to provide cost-effective counsel.
Intellectual Property
Our experience covers a broad scope of intellectual property counsel. We regularly advise clients regarding trademark clearance and registration and infringement disputes, copyright registration and protection, and trade secret protection, including nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements. We have arbitrated domain name disputes before WIPO and NAF, and have settled many domain name disputes without the need for arbitration. We can also assist in the administration of or selection of outside counsel for patent prosecution.
We offer flat fee options for most trademark clearance and registration and copyright registration matters.
Technology
While most of our technology clients have traditional intellectual property issues related to trademarks, copyrights, and the protection of proprietary information, many also have additional needs related to their particular technology. We assist these clients with preparing and negotiating various forms of development agreements for the creation of new technology, as well as license, procurement, and strategic partnership agreements aimed at the purchase or distribution of existing technology.
Again, we strive to work with our clients in determining the most appropriate legal vehicle for their goals. While one client may only need a simple end-user license agreement for off-the-shelf software, another may need a complex development and distribution agreement that encompasses specific ownership rights for each party and a tiered royalty structure based on quarterly sales.
Entertainment
We work with a variety of entertainment clients, including artists, managers, record labels, photographers, and producers. We have participated in negotiating recording deals and distribution deals with major labels. Some of our clients choose the independent label route, and we have assisted them from the start with entity formation and the development of form contracts for artists, producers, and other service providers. We have been on both sides of the table in negotiating management agreements, representing both artists and managers in different deals. Some of our clients have relied on us to review and negotiate agreements with their talent agents. One of our recent projects involves clearing the use of film clips from major motion pictures for use in a documentary. Obviously, our entertainment clients face a host of issues, and we work hard in helping these clients identify and address them.
Litigation
Sometimes our clients have disputes that can only be resolved through the litigation process. We have represented clients in federal and state courts regarding intellectual property and commercial claims. We regularly counsel our clients on the costs and benefits of litigating their particular disputes. As a small firm, we are necessarily very selective in the litigation cases that we will handle, although we have many relationships with other firms that are willing to service the litigation needs of our clients.