Computers are everywhere, from the servers and mainframes that power the Internet to consumer PCs and laptops to smart phones, PDAs and embedded devices. The rate of innovation in this arena is unprecedented: computers that filled a room a generation ago now fit in the palm of your hand.
The development in computer hardware has ignited similar growth and specialization in the software industry, with office suites and expensive software packages yielding market share to new models that include open source, grass roots “app” development for the iPhone and other PDAs, software as a service (SaaS), and cloud computing applications such as Google Documents.
Regardless of changes in business models, engineering and design, or otherwise, intellectual property rights continue to play a pivotal role. A carefully developed portfolio can prove to be a crucial asset to a growing company with new ideas. Similarly, as spending on technology increases, companies must be prepared to defend a growing number of IP assertions. Our lawyers have the perspective on intellectual property law, along with intimate familiarity of this changing field, to help guide you through the complexities.
Our recent experience in this area includes handling disputes over touchpad computers, Wi-Fi networking, hard disk drives, software patents, and software-related copyright issues, among others. We also have experience guiding companies in securing intellectual property to protect their investments in innovation.
At Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP, we have over 50 years of experience exclusively in intellectual property law. Many of our attorneys have direct industry experience in hardware and software development, and understand the complex challenges facing companies in fields that include:
Developments in life sciences and healthcare are coming at an ever more rapid rate, many embodying techniques, procedures, or discoveries unimaginable just a few short years ago. The value of these cutting-edge techniques—both to the patients whose lives are aided by them, and to your business as a reward for developing them—can be very high. The competitive landscape in this field requires a sophisticated intellectual property strategy, and the complicated timelines for approval call for an IP strategy that is implemented from the start.
We work with clients across a broad range of disciplines and technologies, including:
We are a full-service Intellectual Property Law Firm and can support your strategy by:
We provide Intellectual Property services for a wide array of industries and disciplines in the chemistry profession. Developing an intellectual property strategy in this arena is crucial to maintain a competitive edge, as well as to attract investors.
We blend legal experience with industry-specific knowledge to create comprehensive intellectual property strategies tailored to our client’s needs. This strategy can involve several different steps, such as domestic and international patents, trademarking logos and branding, licensing, and copyrighting materials.
We have experience working in this sector across several fields including pharmaceutical, consumer-packaged goods, medical innovation, and chemical engineering.
The fashion-buying public is more fickle than ever, and this season’s hot item usually arrives unexpectedly, is pursued in a brief rush of demand, and then seems to disappear abruptly. With product lifecycles like this, it’s a challenge to capitalize fully on the products you make that are in great demand.
At Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP, our experience with our apparel and retailing clients is that the most reliable path to sustained profitability is through the cultivation and development of a strong brand: A trademark that consumers can come to rely upon almost without thinking, so that there is no hesitation between attraction to an item and purchase.
Few other industries are so heavily reliant on name brands as retailing and apparel. For over 50 years, we have counseled clients large and small, brand-new and venerable, local and international, in this challenging and ever-changing environment.
Where, as here, your brand truly is your product, make sure your investment in it is safeguarded. Talk with our seasoned, knowledgeable lawyers to ensure you’re doing all you should be to get the most out of your brand.
The financial services industry is, by some measures, the largest single industry in the US economy today, constituting 22.3% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500, more than any other sector. Nor has it been any stranger to innovation.
Businesses and consumers alike have more access today than ever before, to a wider variety of ways to borrow and to invest money, to pay or to be paid, and to turn assets into income or vice versa. Many of the new products of the financial services industry themselves contain protectable intellectual property belonging to the firms that invented, refined, or first marketed them successfully.
“Business methods” (such as Amazon’s “1-Click” ordering) can often be patented, granting firms nimble enough to do so a competitive distinction in the eyes of their customers. Indeed, the first business method patent ever upheld covered a software program that made mutual fund asset allocation calculations.
Since then, thousands of business method patent applications have been filed annually. However, the law surrounding the patentability of business methods is in flux. In this changing environment, we have the expertise to:
Could you be sitting on a business method suitable for patent protection? Talk to us; we’ll use our expertise to analyze your portfolio of business methods and advise you—in a highly cost-effective and efficient manner—whether you’re deploying those methods in an optimal manner
Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has a vibrant and extensive practice representing and advising universities, hospitals and research institutions that develop and license technology applicable to diverse industries.
For many of these institutions, intellectual property is a cornerstone of their fundraising program and a metric for research progress and innovation. Maximizing quality patent filings and effective licensing of patent IP, as well identifying and protecting less traditional IP such as software, algorithms and data sets, are vital to success.
In addition, Sponsored Research Agreements and Research Services Agreements have become an increasingly important source of funds to these institutions. We are well-versed in the concerns and needs of non-profit institutions in the transactional arena. Many of our attorneys have Ph.Ds. or master’s degrees in technical disciplines, and some bring the insight of having been researchers themselves.
Our attorneys have lectured and published widely on matters as diverse as Bayh-Dole updates, the public use bar, and university data ownership and policies, and are actively involved with organizations such as AUTM and LES.
Our universities, hospitals and research institutions practice is wide-ranging and runs the gamut from establishing institutional IP and data policies, assisting with innovation disclosure forms and workflows, support and scrutiny throughout the whole innovation cycle, patent filing and procurement in diverse subject areas, to establishing and monitoring cost-effective and robust patent portfolio and licensing strategies.
Where necessary, we represent non-profit clients in litigation to enforce their intellectual property rights and in inventorship disputes and leverage our long history of corporate IP litigation. Our trademark and copyright practices are long-established, and we are attuned to helping hospitals leverage this soft IP. We recognize that packages of IP rights, going beyond patents to include datasets, algorithms, trademarks and copyrights are increasingly important to institutions to protect or monetize.
Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has been involved in precedent-setting actions that have helped to shape the contours of the legal landscape across which university and research institutions must navigate. For example, we represented Yeshiva University in the landmark New York State case that established the principle that scientific researchers at academic institutions have an implied obligation to assign their inventions to their university employers, even absent a written agreement.
We have assisted universities and research institutions to obtain intellectual property coverage worldwide. Our attorneys have worked closely with European counsel to successfully assert patent infringement claims in Europe relating to implantable medical devices and methods for activating viruses in blood products and plasma. We have represented clients in opposition proceedings before the European Patent Office, the German Federal Patent Court as co-counsel, and in infringement and other proceedings throughout Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Working for European, Japanese and Korean law firms, we also prosecute US patent applications owned by foreign research institutions in Europe, Japan and Korea, and support their worldwide licensing.
We support every step of groundbreaking research, from intellectual property strategies to technology transfer agreements. With decades of industry experience, the technical know-how to understand sophisticated technologies, and deep expertise in licensing and portfolio management, Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP is a valuable strategic partner to our university & research institution clients.
It is now globally recognized that innovation in green technology and sustainable clean energy is of the utmost importance. Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has a long history of experience in the green and sustainable energy field, whether it be in context of obtaining patent coverage, litigating to enforce patent rights or to defend against infringement assertions, or providing strategic counseling.
Our green technology and energy experience includes:
An example of our experience is in successfully guiding lithium-ion battery field clients through the many IP challenges that arise from proof of concept through commercialization. Every aspect of lithium-ion batteries is intensively researched for improvement, from separators to electrode materials to electrolyte chemistry. The development of lithium-ion batteries often involves complex safety and performance challenges that can take years to solve. During this time, there are many patent challenges that can get in your way. A patent infringement assertion from a competitor can delay and even derail your development and commercialization efforts. If your own products are not properly protected, your competitors may be able to knock-off your technology.
Representative work in the lithium-ion battery field includes:
Our green technologies & energy team has degrees in fields such as physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science engineering and chemistry. Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has the people power and experience for your needs in green technology and energy IP. Whether you research, develop, manufacture or license green energy technologies, our experienced lawyers will assist you at every stage of the life cycle. Together, we will strategize, develop and implement a comprehensive intellectual property strategy to help maximize your competitive power.
The hospitality landscape has evolved dramatically in a post-covid world. Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP represents globally recognized businesses in the hospitality and leisure fields and counsels on day-to-day business as well as openings and expansions.
Many of businesses in these fields have branches in multiple continents. Our in-house team of experts helps navigate cultural nuances as well as domestic and international Intellectual Property challenges. We provide counsel on all aspects of their business from property to brand management, through advice on trademark licensing, franchising, marketing, labor issues, management agreements and many more.
Our firm has represented thought leaders in all aspects of their Intellectual Property strategies. We work with award-winning hotels, restaurants, airlines, and resorts world-wide on custom Intellectual Property Strategies that protect and defend brands, ideas and assets
The consumer goods sector faces enormous challenges in the digital age. We are equipped to manage brands big and small through our extensive Intellectual Property services. We develop a custom strategy for your specific needs and assign a team of in-house legal and technical experts best suited for your needs and budget.
We have a track record of consistently enforcing and defending our clients Intellectual Property throughout the entire product life cycle in the following consumer sectors:
In each of these sectors we advise clients on all aspects of their business, including product development, packaging, distribution and marketing. We are equally versed in building and protecting your Intellectual Property as we are in navigating and defending these rights as needed.
According to data from the UN’s International Telecommunications Union, the World Bank, and the UN itself, there are now more mobile telephones than people.
The wireless revolution continues. Recent years have seen tremendous innovation and growth in the field of mobile devices and wireless communications. This includes the rapid development and deployment of new generations of mobile handsets and network infrastructure that are capable of transmitting and receiving vast amounts of all types of data, smart phones of increasing functionality, and other mobile computing and communication devices and networks. as well as the increasingly common transmission of mobile content, though mobile email, MMS, SMS technologies.
The players in this field continue to advance the state of the art across a diverse set of core technologies including antenna design, compression techniques, encoding and modulation techniques, data encryption technologies, and power control algorithms, and in platforms that range from integrated circuits to software to display and graphical user interfaces.
These core technologies in the mobile field are also heavily standardized. These standards include CDMA2000, LTE, W-CDMA, GSM/GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11), WiMAX, and Bluetooth. The standardization activities often are accompanied by challenging and complex intellectual property issues.
Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has deep experience dealing with the intellectual property issues that arise in this field, including providing strategic advice and counseling, litigating to enforce or protect against patent assertions, prosecuting and obtaining patent protection, and providing analyses and opinions.
We also have broad experience in license-in, license-out, and cross-licensing matters involving mobile and wireless technologies. By combining this experience with a strong technological background focused on these technologies, our attorneys consistently deliver focused and high-quality service to our mobile device and wireless clients.
The Internet of Things is an innovative area of our world that brings forth a wide and unforeseen potential for patentable technology. We will work with you to devise a comprehensive Intellectual Property Strategy that protects your product through trademark and copyright protection and will maximize the value of your work. Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has been advising bleeding edge technology for the past decade and we are equipped with the experience and knowledge to navigate a world that is getting smarter by the day.
Innovative technology start-ups have exploded in number, as decreased barriers to entry have enabled entrepreneurs to bring ideas to reality at an unprecedented rate. Spurred by the new markets created by the Internet, social media, ecommerce and smart phones as well as decreased development costs, a new wave of start-ups has taken shape. An entire eco-system has developed around start-up businesses, with other industries, from venture funding to technology development, adapting and growing to accommodate the change.
Every start-up is based upon a core value proposition that makes it unique in the marketplace. Intellectual property is one of the best ways of capturing that “uniqueness” and allowing the nascent enterprise to own it in the market. Our attorneys are experts in helping startups identify how to best capture that uniqueness with intellectual property, whether it be patents, trademarks, copyrights or trade secrets, and turning it into an asset of the enterprise’s books. We also help startups to fill the gaps in intellectual property coverage through contractual protections, including confidentiality agreements, joint development agreements, works for hire agreements, license agreements, and terms and conditions for websites and mobile applications. And, when the day comes that a start-up must face others’ intellectual property rights, our attorneys can help to intelligently navigate the competitive landscape and find the most cost-effective way to avoid and/or obtain rights of others. We also help start-ups avoid issues by identifying potential roadblocks before they start and providing guidance for designing around them, as well as by assisting to resolve conflicts after they have been initiated by others.
We understand that the balance between these legal tasks and the need to fund the development of a young business can be delicate. Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein, LLP has experience with start-ups of all sizes, both in protecting their IP and assessing the IP landscape of their respective businesses. Our attorneys are cognizant of the sensitive economics of the start-up industry and have the legal and technical expertise to interact with inventors, development teams, and business executives to provide efficient strategic guidance and protection in the intellectual property field. Whether social media, mobile apps, Web 2.0 businesses, or new products, we develop tailored IP strategies, from drafting IP-related contractual protections to advising on what to protect and how to protect it. Our strategies help start-ups build their brand, protect against competition, and avoid infringement.
In addition, our attorneys have experience handling intellectual property issues for investors and potential investors. This includes IP valuations, analysis and execution of IP licensing and monetization opportunities, and analysis of competitors’ IP. Our approach considers both the business economics and the realities of the IP landscape, both in the U.S. and abroad, to present a comprehensive evaluation for our clients.