Buchanan's trademark litigation team recognizes that a company's name, brand, trademarks and service marks, trade dress and Internet domain names are often the most valuable intellectual property assets owned by the company. These symbols represent the goodwill and reputation that the company has built up over decades or is in the process of building at great expense today. The protection of these IP assets is critical to the success and growth of our clients' businesses. Our trademark litigators are committed to the protection of our clients' interests and the enforcement of our clients' IP rights, whether as plaintiffs or defendants, in this critically important field of IP law.
The trademark litigation team is highly experienced in handling a wide range of trademark disputes, including all types of trademark and trade dress infringement and dilution claims, counterfeiting, gray-market goods, domain name claims and licensing disputes. We have handled these disputes in the federal and state courts at the trial and appellate levels. We have also represented clients in trademark disputes before non-judicial forums, including ex parte and inter partes registration and cancellation disputes before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the USPTO, domain name disputes under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, anti-counterfeiting enforcement through the United States Customs & Border Protection Service and infringement and gray-market goods claims before the United States International Trade Commission.
With knowledge that only years of experience can provide, Buchanan's trademark litigators have handled a large number of disputes involving the issues that typically arise in these cases, including likelihood of confusion, secondary meaning, defining trade areas, likelihood of dilution, fame, genericness, marketing methods, industry practices, proof of actual confusion and damages. The trademark litigation team is also experienced in the use of expert witnesses and the development and use of survey evidence to establish or disprove claims asserted in trademark litigation.
The team always seeks to resolve trademark disputes as quickly and efficiently as possible, starting with negotiations and alternative dispute resolution (ADR). However, when settlement negotiations and ADR do not produce satisfactory results, our trademark litigation team is prepared to litigate the dispute in any forum and in any way is necessary to protect our clients' interests, including proceedings before government agencies, applications for temporary restraining orders and seizures, motions for preliminary injunctions, declaratory judgment actions, summary judgment motions, trials and, if necessary, appeals. Throughout this process, Buchanan's trademark litigators seek to obtain the best possible outcome and achieve our client's business objectives in the most cost-efficient way in each case.