Intellectual Property

Overview

At Friedman Kaplan, we pride ourselves on the intellectual strength and agility of our attorneys. No aspect of our work benefits more from these qualities than our intellectual property practice. Our attorneys are able to quickly master technically complex concepts, and this, combined with our strength in complex commercial litigation generally, makes us a potent force in intellectual property litigation.

We represent clients ranging from large corporations to individuals both as plaintiffs and defendants in connection with intellectual property matters dealing with ownership rights, patents, copyrights, and trademark infringement. Our work in this arena includes everything from providing pre-litigation advice and fair use training to litigating matters at trial and on appeal. Attorneys from our New Jersey office also frequently provide local New Jersey counsel services to major pharmaceutical companies in large patent infringement litigations.

Selected Experience

• We defended a major financial services company in a licensing and copyright infringement dispute brought by IBM arising out of a compliance audit. The firm successfully avoided the imposition of summary judgment against the client and defeated claims for over $100 million in profit disgorgement damages under the Copyright Act.
• On behalf of a developer and licenser of wireless communications products, we obtained a Tenth Circuit decision on interpretation of patent licenses, which reversed trial decisions and embraced the arguments of our client. Friedman Kaplan was brought in as appellate counsel following a disappointing trial on licensing and patent claims, and obtained a decision overwhelmingly in our client's favor. We continue to handle the case on remand.
• We successfully represented a commercial graphic artist as plaintiff at trial before a jury in connection with claims of copyright violation of his work and breach of a settlement agreement.
• We represented a major e-commerce company in a case under the Lanham Act alleging infringement of trade dress rights.
• We represented a French motion picture production and distribution company in the successful defense of copyright infringement claims related to its film "Son of Rambow." We argued that the film was a parody, and were successful in having the complaint dismissed on summary judgment.
• We represented a major online news outlet in connection with training on fair use, copyright, and intellectual property law for its employees. In addition to conducting the training, we also completed a fair use manual addressing how the company’s employees could legally transform existing copyrighted material for use in parodies.
• We represented an online weekly lifestyle publication in defense of a lawsuit alleging unfair competition and trademark infringement.
• We represented an equipment services provider in the defense of trademark infringement and trade secret misappropriation claims brought by a maker of high-tech equipment that the company services.