Intellectual Property

Your ideas, content, and brand are among your most valuable business assets. But in the digital economy, they're also among the most vulnerable. Kronenberger Rosenfeld represents companies and creators navigating the full spectrum of intellectual property law, from federal trademark registration and copyright protection to trade secret counseling and IP licensing. We handle both advisory and litigation, fighting infringement when it matters most.

Intellectual property rights are both well established and rapidly evolving with the introduction of new technologies including artificial intelligence. Our team has deep experience in pursuing justice under intellectual property laws, as well as representing those who have been charged with violations of intellectual property rights. This exposure has helped inform our strategic approach to handling intellectual property litigation efficiently and effectively.

If you have an intellectual property matter, contact our team today for a free consultation.

Protect your Intellectual Property

Smart IP strategy starts before anyone sues you or knocks off your brand. Think of an IP portfolio like insurance: you hope you never need it in court, but the moment you do, you want it to be rock solid. In addition to copyright and trademark registrations and consulting, our team of intellectual property attorneys help you assess risks and to avoid unnecessary disputes.

• Federal IP Registrations (Copyright, Trademark)
• Content licensing
• International IP consulting
• Pre-registration searches and monitoring of competing applications

Intellectual Property Litigation

We litigate in state and federal courts across the country, with particular experience in venues that consistently shape national IP law, especially for internet and technology companies. Whether you need to register a trademark, enforce a copyright, negotiate a content license, fight a counterfeiting operation, or defend against an infringement claim, our team brings focused, tech-literate legal strategy to every matter.

Enforcing a copyright in federal court requires a registration, which is one more reason to register early and often. If you have not yet registered, we can help you do that before filing suit. If you are on the receiving end of an infringement claim, we analyze the strength of the plaintiff's copyright, the scope of their registration, potential fair use defenses, and whether the claim is simply an attempt to leverage litigation costs into a settlement.

• Copyright and Trademark infringement
• Counterfeits and Pirated Goods
• IP Litigation Defense (including AI copyright litigation)
• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) actions

Trade Secrets and Proprietary Information

Not every competitive advantage can or should be patented. From customer lists and pricing algorithms to proprietary source code and manufacturing processes, trade secrets can remain protected indefinitely as long as they are treated as confidential. The Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) provides federal civil remedies for misappropriation, and California's Uniform Trade Secrets Act adds a parallel state-law layer.

We help businesses build trade secret protection programs from the ground up: drafting confidentiality agreements, implementing internal security policies, structuring employee and contractor onboarding to ensure proper IP assignment, and taking swift legal action when former employees or competitors cross the line. If your proprietary information has already been misappropriated, you may be able to pursue emergency injunctive relief to stop further disclosure.

DMCA and Section 512 Defense

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is one of the most frequently litigated statutes on the internet, and navigating it requires more than a working knowledge of copyright law. It requires a deep understanding of how online platforms actually function.

We represent both copyright owners using the DMCA to remove infringing content and online service providers relying on Section 512's safe harbor protections to limit their liability. For platforms and ISPs, we help establish and maintain DMCA-compliant procedures so that the safe harbor actually holds when it is tested.

International IP Management and International Trademarks

The internet is worldwide, and if you have an internet-based business, you are operating in the global marketplace. While the United States used to provide the gold standard for copyright and trademark registration, today more and more businesses are seeking the added protection of international intellectual property registration in the geographic areas in which they do the most business.

Registering a trademark abroad is accomplished through various international organizations, agreements, and treaties, many of which allow you to file in more than one country at the same time. For example, single registration of a European Union Trade Mark (EUTM) through the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Other avenues for international registration include:

• Filing an international application under the Madrid Protocol through the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which covers more than 110 different countries across the globe.
• Filing an application for trademark registration with the African Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), which covers 19 member countries in Africa.
• Filing an application for trademark registration in one of the member countries of the Andean Pact, which covers Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
• Filing an application for trademark registration through the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), which covers Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

When the option to file a foreign trademark application through one of the above international organizations is unavailable or disadvantageous, Kronenberger Rosenfeld’s international IP lawyers coordinate with local counsel networks to apply for trademark registration in individual foreign countries.

Experienced IP Attorneys

We have a proven track record of enforcing clients’ IP rights against infringers located in both the United States and abroad. Additionally, our firm regularly counsels clients on minimizing risk of incurring trademark and copyright liability infringement liability based on their business practices in foreign jurisdictions.

Intellectual property disputes move fast, and so do we. Whether you're facing trademark infringement, copyright theft, counterfeit goods, or a trade secret walkout, Kronenberger Rosenfeld has the litigation experience to protect what you've built. If you have an intellectual property matter, contact our team today using the form below.

FAQ's

What is intellectual property law?

Intellectual property law covers the legal rights that protect creative works, inventions, brand identifiers, and confidential business information. The main categories are trademarks (brand names, logos, slogans), copyrights (original creative works like writing, music, software, and art), trade secrets (confidential business information that provides a competitive advantage), and patents (inventions and processes). Each category has its own legal framework, registration system, and enforcement mechanisms. For internet and technology companies, IP law is often inseparable from day-to-day business operations.

Why should I register my trademark?

You are not legally required to register a trademark to use it, but registration with the USPTO gives you significant advantages. A federal registration provides constructive notice of your ownership nationwide, a legal presumption that you own the mark and have the exclusive right to use it, the ability to record the mark with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to block infringing imports, and access to federal courts for enforcement. Unregistered marks only provide rights in the geographic areas where you actually use them, which can be a serious limitation for businesses operating online. In short, registration is almost always worth the investment.

Can AI-generated content be copyrighted?

This is one of the most actively contested questions in intellectual property law right now. The U.S. Copyright Office has taken the position that copyright protection requires human authorship, which means fully AI-generated content without meaningful human creative input is generally not eligible for copyright protection. However, works where a human author uses AI as a tool to make expressive choices about selection, arrangement, and expression may still qualify for protection to the extent of that human authorship. The law is evolving quickly, and the courts are beginning to weigh in on related questions, including whether using copyrighted works to train AI models constitutes infringement. Our AI copyright attorneys track these developments closely.

What is the DMCA?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a federal law that, among other things, establishes a notice-and-takedown system for online copyright infringement and creates safe harbor protections for online service providers. Under Section 512, platforms and ISPs can avoid liability for user-uploaded infringing content if they respond promptly to takedown notices, maintain designated agent registrations with the Copyright Office, and enforce repeat infringer policies. For copyright owners, the DMCA provides a faster and cheaper alternative to litigation for removing infringing content from platforms. For platforms, compliance with Section 512 is essential to maintaining safe harbor protection.

What should I do if someone is infringing my trademark?

Start by documenting the infringement: screenshots, purchase records, and any evidence of consumer confusion. Then consult a trademark attorney before taking action. Depending on the nature of the infringement, your options may include a cease and desist letter, a DMCA or platform takedown (for marketplace listings or social media), UDRP arbitration (for domain names), or federal litigation under the Lanham Act. Acting quickly matters because delay can sometimes be used against you as a defense. If your mark is not yet federally registered, registration should be part of your enforcement strategy going forward.

How do trade secrets differ from patents?

Patents and trade secrets both protect valuable innovations, but they work in opposite ways. A patent gives you a time-limited monopoly (typically 20 years) on an invention in exchange for publicly disclosing how it works. A trade secret, by contrast, derives its value from secrecy — and can theoretically last forever as long as the information remains confidential. Trade secrets are often a better fit for processes, formulas, and business methods that cannot be easily reverse-engineered, while patents are better suited for inventions you want to commercialize broadly. The key tradeoff: if your trade secret is independently discovered or reverse-engineered, you have no legal protection, whereas a patent holder can still enforce their rights.