How Does Infringement Affect Intellectual Property?

Your business ideas are brilliant, and unfortunately you're not the only one who knows. Intellectual Property protection in the age of the internet requires a new level of vigilance and legal excellence to protect. Dealing with infringement? Here's what to do:

Intellectual property infringement is the terminology for a foreign entity interfering with, illegally discerning, or outright stealing the intellectual property of another person or business entity. The theft is considered infringement from the violation of a protected intellectual property right. Intellectual Property rights are bestowed to a creator or inventor for works of originality either by default - as is the case for Trade Secrets (which are unfiled), or as a result of filing for public record with the USPTO. IP infringement can, in some instances, be accompanied by the theft of actual physical property or in conjunction with other civil wrongdoings and crimes.

This simultaneous overlapping of several distinct types of unlawful conduct can engender incorrect assumptions among many that IP can be "stolen". The theft is typically not as much about the removal of physical property but the intellectual product that makes any physical product or service of value. Similarly, when digital files containing product blueprints or technical drawings are accessed without authorization to "steal" the subject matter, various cybercrime laws and other types of civil wrongdoing such as unlawful competition can occur in conjunction with IP infringement.

There are various means in which Intellectual Property can be defended, and the ways in which it can be defended depend heavily on what kind of Intellectual Property is being defended. There are a number of ways we ensure the fidelity of filing. First, during the process of filing, TEIL Firms conducts thorough research into your image, mark, or other filing documentation online and within federal databases to ensure that the filing is not rejected on the basis of similarity to another filing in the same category.

We then ensure that all elements of your filing are appropriately designated for the submission process to ensure a smooth acceptance of filing. Any issues are then resolved before your filing is complete. After your filing is compete, we do not abandon your ownership but rather take on the task of periodically ensuring the fidelity of your filing.

For most Intellectual Property filings, it is not enough to simply own the mark and have filed it. There are stipulations of ownership that require the constant defense of the mark to be valid. This means that in the event someone does attempt to infringe, you are vigilantly prepared.

In the event that infringement is attempted, the infringing party will receive a detailed Cease and Desist letter from our offices informing them of the of infringement, and detailing the defensive actions that will take place in the event of the continuation of the infringing action. In the event that the Cease and Desist is ignored, our firm will notify you of the other party's non-compliance, and begin filings for a federal lawsuit.