Trademark/Copyright

Seamless, one-stop trademark and copyright services

With highly accomplished teams working in concert on both sides of the Atlantic, Dechert offers expertise on trademark and copyright matters that is truly international. In fact, Dechert was a pioneer in providing seamless, one-stop service to clients in need of a global perspective on intellectual property. Our seasoned professionals have been advising trademark and copyright owners on U.S., European Union and multinational matters, and negotiating transactions that enhance IP value, for decades.

Dechert offers the experience, savvy and practicality necessary to assist brand owners at every stage in the life of a trademark. With thoughtful, strategic advice on clearance, and registration, we help companies create, secure and maintain valuable brands in the U.S., Europe and around the world. We then help them build on that strong foundation by creating cost-effective strategies for enforcing, defending and licensing those rights.

Internationally known as a leader in trademark searching, Dechert has unlimited access to search data from every country in the Americas, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Africa with a commercial trademark database. This gives us unparalleled capability to conduct searches and advise on availability on any turnaround with remarkable cost-effectiveness. Dechert has provided clearance advice on thousands of marks per year in the U.S. and Europe and also has used our searching expertise to give clients a cost-effective worldwide snapshot of trademark availability. We also regularly register marks, prosecute applications and litigate to enforce, defend and protect our clients’ trademark rights.

Because of our vast experience, some of the world’s largest multinational trademark owners have looked to Dechert to enhance their own sophisticated in-house trademark capabilities.

Once a mark has been adopted, we bring our expertise to the task of making sure that third parties don’t infringe it. Our extensive knowledge of searching allows us to help clients find practical and cost-effective ways of monitoring the web and international trademark registers for possibly confusing and infringing marks. We deal with infringement issues on a national, multinational or global basis, helping clients to choose battles wisely. Applying our depth and breadth of experience before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) and in courts, our lawyers actively litigate opposition and cancellation proceedings and assert and defend clients in unfair competition and infringement cases.

We bring equal savvy to matters of copyright. Although it appears conceptually simple from a distance, copyright law is remarkably complicated close-up. Dechert lawyers appreciate and understand the complexity, enabling us to distill it and provide concise, meaningful advice and clear, precise transaction documents.

Dechert has decades of experience counseling enterprises that rely on copyrightable works as their stock-in-trade and representing buyers and sellers in complex licensing and acquisition matters. We assist clients with registering copyright, expediting applications, document recordation and conducting searches. Our lawyers advise on all types of copyright issues, including ownership rights, copyright renewal and termination rights, assignment, acquisitions, sales, licensing and enforcement strategies, fair use, safe harbor protection, infringement, damages, portfolio management and the interplay of available IP protections.

Unlike many trademark and copyright practices, the structuring and negotiation of transactions has been front-and-center in our practice for 25 years. With this uncommon combination of transactional skill and intellectual property know-how, we have the experience and capability to assist companies with the most complex or time-sensitive trademark and copyright acquisitions, management, licenses and disputes.