Essentials of Intellectual Property

A pre-recorded streaming VIDEO replay of the February 2024 webcast, Essentials of Intellectual Property.

The intellectual property law landscape is in constant flux, particularly with the rise of AI, blockchain, and the new Unified Patent Court in Europe. In this era of a global financial and social economy, no lawyer can afford to avoid having at least a basic working knowledge of intellectual property. This seminar is designed to provide you with basic information every practicing lawyer needs to know about intellectual property protection in the United States, including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. These specialized areas of the law show up both in expected situations, such as the sale of business assets where the brand name or product name is involved, and in unexpected situations, such as the simple employment contract where companies are more frequently requiring employees to sign away all rights to any invention as part of their employment, in divorces where one spouse has rights in certain technology, copyrights, or even patents, or in estates when figuring out how to deal with the most valuable type of intangible property. The unwary attorney may overlook very important and far-reaching consequences to their clients, or in fact may not even be aware they are being overlooked until it is too late.

Our experienced attorneys lead you through the topics in a general manner, enabling you to spot the primary issues and deal with them appropriately. The seminar is not designed to make you an intellectual property attorney; it is designed to make you a better and more aware attorney in whatever area you practice.

Copyrights, Patents, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks in two hours

• Gain a working knowledge of IP law that every attorney needs
• Learn to spot major IP issues
• Identify where IP may be a factor in any type of case
• Understand the difference between those situations when you can handle the IP issue and those in which you might need help

Introduction and Overview

• What is IP? Differences and intersection between Trademarks, Patents, and Copyright

Copyrights

• Registration rights
• Licensing and litigation issues that may arise post-registration

Patents

• Patent basics: what are they, how are they acquired, what do they protect?
• Patent ownership and how to deal with patent rights in contracts
• Pitfalls to avoid in patent disputes

Trade Secrets

• Methods to protect your client’s trade secrets
• Reasons why you may not want to apply for a patent for your client’s trade secrets
• Steps you and your client should take to enforce a theft of your client’s trade secrets

Trademarks

• Best practices for selecting and preclearing trademarks
• The right way to file and register trademarks
• International trademarks in brief
• Disputes, policing, and enforcement of trademarks

Faculty

Thomas M. Dunlap, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC / Leesburg

David Ludwig, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC / Leesburg

About the Speakers

Thomas M. Dunlap, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC / Leesburg

Tom Dunlap’s practice focuses on intellectual property and government contracts. In addition to serving as lead counsel in multiple patent, trademark, and other jury trials, Tom has served as co-counsel or an expert witness for other law firms. Tom has authored numerous books and appeared on national television and radio, including Fox, Sundance T.V.,TV, and NPR, speaking on various subjects in his fields of practice. In addition to the state and federal courts of DC, Virginia, and Maryland, he is a member of the Federal Courts in Puerto Rico, Colorado, New York, and Texas, as well as the Court of Federal Claims, the Federal Circuit, the Veteran’s Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court, where he was lead counsel on a False Claims Act case (see United States ex rel. Carter v. Halliburton Co.) and in the T.C. Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (U.S. May 22, 2017) (No. 16-341)), a case involving jurisdiction in patent infringement cases. Other recent litigation victories where he served as lead trial counsel include a $12,317,500 verdict in Zuru v. Telebanrds et al. (EDTX 2017) (patent infringement), and a $2,600,000 verdict in DPX Gear v Prince et al. (Loudoun Circuit Court 2017) (breach of contract and fraud).

Mr. Dunlap has been repeatedly named as both a Washington, DC, and Virginia SuperLawyer (top 2.5%), maintains an AVVO “Superb” rating (10.0), “Top 12” (Northern Virginia magazine), and Who’s Who in American Law, and has been named to various lists for litigation work such as the “Power 100” Hollywood Reporter Lawyer in entertainment for his work with independent film studios including Voltage Productions (The Hurt Locker), Millennium Film (Expendables 2), and a host of others. He also works with film industry professionals in a variety of areas, including copyright, licensing, distribution, contract, compliance, fundraising, and clearance.

In addition to nine years as an Army officer (Cavalry), holding an instrument pilot’s license, an MBA, and an M.S. in Biotechnology, Mr. Dunlap has served as a Special Prosecutor and has a background in finance from time spent in commercial banking at JP Morgan Chase and the Bank of New York in the Private Client Group. He has also served as Airport commissioner for KJYO (Executive Airport), a Dulles, feeder airport.

David Ludwig, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig PLLC / Leesburg

David Ludwig’s practice focuses on civil litigation in the areas of patent, trademark, copyright, internet/domain names, commercial transactions, government contracts, community associations, and bankruptcy law/creditors’ rights, as well as trademark and copyright prosecution, and corporate and small business law. He is co-chair of his firm’s litigation group, supervising several lawyers, and he has served as an attorney for local and national clients in federal and state court litigation and arbitration matters, as well as in bankruptcy proceedings, TTAB disputes (trademark Notice of Opposition and trademark Petition to Cancel proceedings), domain name disputes (ACPA, UDRP, and URS proceedings), government contract bid protests and Tucker Act litigation, and numerous other forums and proceedings.

Mr. Ludwig has represented manufacturing companies in complex patent infringement matters, technology companies in trademark infringement matters, and copyright holders in infringement actions against the likes of Disney and ABC. In 2012, he made new law in Virginia by successfully arguing to the Virginia Supreme Court that a prevailing homeowner is entitled to recover attorney fees in a claim against a Homeowners Association that has violated the provisions of its own governing documents.

Mr. Ludwig attended law school at The George Washington University Law School, where he served as a student teacher of legal research and writing and an articles editor for the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Quarterly Journal. Prior to joining his current firm, he worked for a boutique DC firm that specialized in litigation and legislative policy work in the areas of copyright and constitutional law.

Mr. Ludwig has been repeatedly named as a Virginia SuperLawyer (top 2.5%), maintains an AVVO “Superb” rating (10.0), and an AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell. He is a LegalZoom “Advantage” Attorney who provides LegalZoom.com visitors with insightful answers to their business-related legal questions and concerns. He is also an adjunct professor of scholarly writing at The George Washington University Law School, working with intellectual property law students that are writing scholarly articles for publication, he sits on the editorial Board of the AIPLA Quarterly Journal, and he regularly speaks and conducts seminars on internet, trademark, intellectual property, litigation, and creditors’ rights issues.