Delain Law Office, PLLC

PATENT:

A U.S. patent gives the patent holder the exclusive right, within the United States, to prevent others from:

• selling the invention;
• offering the invention for sale;
• importing the invention;
• distributing the invention;
• using the invention.

Note that the patent holder does not have the exclusive right to sell, offer for sale, import, distribute or use te invention; she has the exclusive right to prevent others from doing so.

TRADEMARK:

Trademark law protects the public from confusion by clearly identifying the source of a good or service in the stream of commerce. Delain Law Office, PLLC helps clients establish trademark rights, whether those rights are common-law rights or entail state and/or federal registration.

Trademarks are used for goods; service marks are trademarks used for services. We tend to use “trademark” to include both goods and services when we speak quickly.

COPYRIGHT:

Copyright is a bundle of rights for original artistic or literary works that have been fixed in a tangible medium. These rights are based in the U.S. Constitution, which states: The Congress shall have Power  … To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; (U.S. Constitution, Art. 1, Sec. 8, Cl. 8)

If protection of your copyrights makes sense to you, and if your failure to protect your copyrights will have an effect on your bottom line, then it would make sense to obtain protection of your copyrights. Delain Law Office can assist you by providing you with a strategy that implementing whatever tools necessary to insure that your copyrights are protected including copyright searches and submissions of copyright applications. Further, Delain Law Office can help you police your existing copyrights against infringement and help ensure that all title, rights and interest to your copyrights belongs to you and to no one else, if that makes sense to you.

At Delain Law Office, we can help you determine which of these four entities is the best one for you and your business. If your business qualifies as a charity, we can help you obtain your charitable status designation on both the federal and state levels.

Delain Law Office is well equipped to help you negotiate with your contract’s parties to close the deal with a contract as quickly and easily as possible. Once the deal is made, we draft the contract, memorializing the agreement in writing. Drafting and developing a contract involves due diligence and legal writing skills to ensure our clients' contract do what our clients need them to do.

At Delain Law Office, we combine our knowledge of and experience in negotiating, reviewing, and preparing license agreements together with the information provided to us by our clients during exploratory meetings to create a comprehensive intellectual property licensing strategy. We believe that the most appropriate solutions result from direct communication with our clients.

A franchise is a business model involving as its lynchpin a license agreement that allows the franchisee to use the franchise owner’s intellectual property, including trademark, trade dress, patent, and copyright. Examples of successful franchises include familiar fast food chains such as McDonald’s® or Burger King® or higher-end restaurants such as Olive Garden. Other types of businesses can also be franchised, such as Home Depot® or Staples®.

The franchise owner markets his intellectual property to persons who wish to use the existing property in business. The franchise owner generally provides help with location, marketing and advertising, any proprietary methodologies, training, supplies, and all the “trappings” of the franchise. The party being licensed for the franchise generally provides a down payment and a percentage of the income from the business in franchise fees.

At Delain Law Office, we combine our knowledge of and experience in negotiating, reviewing, and preparing franchise agreements together with the information provided to us by our client during exploratory meetings to create a comprehensive intellectual property franchising strategy. We believe that the most appropriate solutions result from direct communication with our clients, preferably in face-to-face meetings, although we are happy to work via telephone, fax and email if distance, time or circumstance requires that.