As a full service intellectual property law firm, LNG provides legal counseling in intellectual property law for both domestic clients and clients overseas.
LNG advises overseas clients on U.S. patent law and the prosecution of patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Overseas inventors and corporations seeking opinions on whether an invention is patentable in the U.S. or seeking an opinion whether a product may be found to infringe an issued U.S. patent can rely on LNG's extensive experience and knowledge of U.S. patent law.
LNG coordinates with a large network of overseas associates to seek international patent protection for our domestic clients. LNG's overseas associates have extensive experience with the patent laws and procedures of their respective nations. With their help, LNG provides counseling for domestic clients regarding foreign intellectual property laws and assists domestic clients in obtaining patents overseas.
LNG also represents both overseas and domestic clients seeking patent protection through the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). The PCT provides for a unified patent application filing procedure in all signatory countries, now including most of the countries in the industrialized world. The filing of a PCT patent application does not lead to the issuance of an "international patent," as no such thing exists. A PCT applicant must ultimately file for a patent in each individual country or region in which the applicant seeks patent protection. However, the PCT provides many advantages for patent applicants as compared to traditional filing procedures.
The first step in filing a PCT application is to file an application with a participating patent office, referred to as the "receiving office." Any individual that is a resident or national of a member nation is eligible to file a PCT application. If the applicant has previously filed a national application for the invention in the U.S. or other country, the applicant then has one year from the filing date of the national application to file a PCT application claiming priority to the previously-filed national application. The PCT application will then be searched and examined resulting in the issuance of an "International Search Report" and an "International Preliminary Report on Patentability." Although these reports are non-binding, they give the applicant an idea of the state of the prior art and any potential road blocks to receiving a patent before the applicant's deadline for filing national applications in the patent offices of the individual countries or regions (such as the European Patent Office). If the applicant wishes to proceed with the applications in the individual countries, the applicant must enter the "national phase" in the selected countries, typically no later than 30 months from the international filing date of the PCT application.
One of the primary benefits of the PCT system for a patent applicant planning to file for patent protection in several countries is that it extends the national filing deadline from 12 months after the priority date of the original application to 30 months or more after the priority date. This extended time period provides an applicant with several advantages. Firstly, the preliminary patentability report gives an applicant an indication of the patentability of the invention before incurring the expense of filing multiple national applications. Secondly, the extended time period gives an applicant additional time to evaluate the market potential of the invention and other factors to be weighed in determining whether to pursue patent protection and in what countries to pursue that protection before incurring the expense of filing the national applications. Additionally, the extended time allows an applicant to delay the payment of national filing fees.
LNG represents clients overseas in filing U.S. national phase applications based on pending PCT applications. Also, through our associations with law firms in many overseas countries, LNG represents U.S. clients not only in the filing of initial PCT applications, but also in the prosecution of foreign national stage applications.
LNG represents overseas clients seeking U.S. trademark registrations in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, as well as U.S. clients seeking trademark registrations overseas. LNG is experienced in helping domestic clients secure foreign trademark registrations both through direct filing with foreign nations and via the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Protocol is an international treaty that allows a trademark owner to seek registration in any of the treaty-signatory countries by filing a single application, known as an "international application."
Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and Licensing Services LNG represents overseas and domestic clients in a wide range of intellectual property-related litigation proceedings in U.S. courts, dispute resolution proceedings and before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. LNG also represents both overseas and domestic clients in the negotiation and drafting of multinational licensing agreements.
If you need more information about international services, please contact us.