INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In many cases, a company’s intellectual property represents the lion’s share of its underlying value. A commercial law firm must seek to protect these important proprietary rights.

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The Nissenbaum Law Group not only files trademarks and copyrights, but also defends them from infringement. It not only handles the transfer of rights to such intangible property, but also the resulting litigation if those rights are violated.

Indeed, protecting intellectual property is the hallmark of a commercial law practice. In many cases, a company’s intellectual property represents the lion’s share of its underlying value. Therefore, it is essential to ensure that items such as copyrights, trademarks and confidentiality agreements are in place and binding.

Unfortunately, the public’s perception of intellectual property law, engenders a number of misunderstandings. For example, many clients assume that if an employee or independent contractor creates intellectual property and is compensated, that automatically means the employer owns it. Unfortunately, under certain circumstances, that assumption would be incorrect. Therefore, the recommended way of handling such a situation is to have the employee or independent contractor sign an assignment or other such transfer of property rights.

Another example is that the public generally assumes that registering a domain or filing incorporation papers with the state automatically confers complete trademark and copyright protection. Once again, that is not true. While the use of a trademark or copyright can confer certain very basic common law rights, the enhanced protections afforded under the trademark and copyright statutes are solely obtained through filing with the appropriate government entity; for trademarks, that would be the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and for copyrights, the United States Copyright Office.

A final example of a misunderstanding in this area is the assumption that filing an intent to use application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office is the equivalent to filing the actual trademark application. Indeed, the Internet contains many advertisements for discount trademark filings at a very low price. It is only when one reads the fine print that it becomes clear the service being offered is nothing more than undertaking an intent to use filing, which is completely different than an actual trademark filing. Unfortunately, the intent to use application solely reserves the trademark for a very limited time and is not a substitute for a formal trademark application.

The firm’s intellectual property practice includes the following:

Corporate audits regarding the client’s intellectual property;
Copyright registration filings;
Trademark and servicemark registration filings and appeals;
Contractual protection of trade secrets;
Non-disclosure agreements;
Litigation to enforce intellectual property rights;
Litigation of disputes related to trade secret theft and unfair competition;
Review and negotiation of license, assignment and royalty agreements;
Litigation of cybersquatting claims;
Patent licensing and assignment agreements; and
Representation before the Federal Trademark Trial & Appeal Board.

Publications & Presentations

Gary D. Nissenbaum, Esq.

Augmented Reality: Gotta Protect That IP, by Gary D. Nissenbaum, Esq. and Laura J. Magedoff, Esq., Apptentive, September 22, 2016
Profiled in: Gary D. Nissenbaum: Ace Gaming Attorney, by David Radd, Gamesauce, September 10, 2016
The Increasing Pace of Digital Change: Why Does Our Culture Always Seem so Blindsided?, Huffington Post, August 4, 2016
The Intriguing Legal Ramifications of Pokémon GO, BrettTerpstra.com, July 25, 2016
Potential Legal Approaches to a Cyberbullying (Co-author), The Young Lawyer, American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, 2013
Receiving Classified Information: Government Secrecy and the Litigation Process(Co-author), NJ Lawyer Magazine, October 2009
Wrongful Posting on the Internet: The Privacy You Save Could be Your Own, NJ Lawyer Magazine, April, 2008
3/1/18 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Systematic, “The Psychodynamics of Lawyering with Gary Nissenbaum”
1/22/18 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Game Dev Unchained, “The Indie Legal Guide With Gary Nissenbaum”
11/21/17 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Gamesindustry.biz Podcasts, “Licensing Your Intellectual Property”
11/3/17 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Developer Tea Podcast, “The Future (and Past) of Legal for Developers w/Gary Nissenbaum (part 1)”
11/3/17 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Developer Tea Podcast, “The Future (and Past) of Legal for Developers w/Gary Nissenbaum (part 2)”
10/19/17 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Complete Developer Podcast, “Developers and the Law”
10/13/17 Interview of Mr. Nissenbaum, Hansel Minutes Podcast, “Latest Developments in App and Website Law Regarding Clickable Terms and Conditions”

Laura J. Magedoff, Esq.

Augmented Reality: Gotta Protect That IP, by Gary D. Nissenbaum, Esq. and Laura J. Magedoff, Esq., Apptentive, September 22, 2016
Potential Legal Approaches to a Cyberbullying Case (Co-author), The Young Lawyer, American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division, 2013
New York County Lawyer’s Association, EMIPS Committee Comments to New York State Bar Association Report of the Privacy Task Force, Contributing Author, March 2009

Wrongful Posting on the Internet: The Privacy You Save Could be Your Own, NJ Lawyer Magazine, April, 2008
Panelist, Intellectual Property Protection & Enforcement, New Jersey Bar Association Annual Conference, Atlantic City, NJ, May 2017
Presented Seminar, 2014 Trademark Primer: Prosecution & Enforcement Strategies Every Attorney Should Know, NJICLE, New Brunswick, NJ, November 2013
Presented Seminar, Entertainment Law: A Crash Course in Representing Entertainers & Other “Personalities” for Every Attorney, NJICLE, New Brunswick, NJ, September 2013
Presented Seminar, Entertainment Law 101, National Business Institute, Newark, NJ, March 2013
Presented Seminar, Theatre and the Law, American Association of Community Theatre National Convention, New York, NY, July 2012
Panelist, Emerging Issues in Reality Television, Seton Hall Law School Sports and Entertainment Law Symposium, Newark, New Jersey, March 2012
Panelist, Empower – I Create Nothing. I Own it: A Panel about Establishing and Protecting your Intellectual Property as a Business Asset, New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners’ Annual Conference, New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 2010
Moderator, Engage – The most Powerful Commodity I know is Information, New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners’ Annual Conference, New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 2010
Panelist, Casino Law 2010: Game On!, 2010 South CLEFest, Atlantic City, NJ, August 2010
Presented Seminar, Protecting Your Online Image, Various 2009-Present
Presented Seminar, Comedy and Drama: The Legal Aspects of Community Theatre, American Association of Community Theatre National Convention, New York, NY, July 2008

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Contact the Nissenbaum Law Group to schedule an appointment at 908-686-8000 or feel free to use the following form to e-mail us. Please include as much information as you can to ensure that we are able to handle your request as quickly as possible

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