216.696.8700

Practice Group

Intellectual Property & Technology Attorneys

KJK’s Intellectual Property & Technology attorneys work with clients from early-stage start-ups to established companies, providing the real-time help and insight they need to thrive in the years to come. 

Services & Industries

Services
  • Advertising
  • Brand Development
  • Brand Enforcement and E-Commerce
  • Copyright and Fair Use
  • Creative Content Protection and Licensing
  • Data Security & Privacy
  • Design and Utility Patents & Licensing
  • Domestic and International Patent Strategies
  • Inbound and Outbound Licensing
  • Invention Review and Protection Strategies
  • IP Litigation & Mediation
  • IP Transactions
  • IT Procurement
  • Licensing Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights, Trade Secrets and Know-How (inbound and outbound).
  • Open and Structured Innovation Strategies and Systems
  • Publicity Rights & Product Endorsement
  • Smart Contracts
  • Social Media
  • Trademarks & Trade Dress
  • Trade Secret Protection and Transactions
Industries
  • Advanced Materials
  • Alternative and Advanced Energy
  • Anything-as-a-Service
  • Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals
  • Blockchain and Shared Ledgers
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Electronics and Software Development
  • Information Technology and Software
  • Life Sciences and Medical Devices
  • Telecommunications
We help companies and individuals build and establish comprehensive intellectual property strategies to drive business success, both today and tomorrow. By focusing on the creation of real value through strategic intellectual property procurement, maximization and enforcement efforts, our intellectual property and technology attorneys help our clients create, maintain and secure the competitive advantage they need to succeed in the rapidly changing global business environment.

Our team delivers a range of innovative solutions and insightful industry knowledge across a diverse group of technical disciplines. Our hands-on, in-depth approach enables us to identify, understand and meet the business goals of our clients, whether they are a technology-related business or a traditional brick-and-mortar business utilizing technology and the internet to address business objectives.

Our technology and intellectual property counseling services include assisting our clients to identify and maximize the value of their technology and intellectual property assets through protection strategies, management, licensing, conveyance and other strategic agreements. In an increasingly global market, we provide solutions for our clients’ patent, copyright, trademark, trade dress, trade secret, industrial design, unfair competition and internet commerce.

Looking towards the future of the industry:

Technology & Innovation Development

Moving from an idea or concept to verifiable proof of concept requires a complicated blend of creativity and discipline.  Our technology and intellectual property attorneys work with our clients to evaluate the potential to protect, cultivate and commercialize inventions. Both in the context of individual inventions and, where appropriate, the development and implementation of internal business innovation systems for our clients, we seek to blend the overall asset and strategic value of the innovation process with our clients’ specific industry objectives.
DESIGN AND UTLITY PATENTS & LICENSING
Patent protection is the gold standard for building asset and strategic value around technological solutions. Our intellectual property attorneys partner with select patent preparation and prosecution specialists to bring world-class talent to bear on our clients’ technology innovations. Working together through the development of provisional and utility patent applications, we help to ensure that domestic and strategic business objectives are at the forefront of our clients’ patent development strategies, including important peripheral issues such as manufacturability, business competitive and collaborative potential, as well as full-spectrum IP portfolio development.

For industrial designs, technology interfaces and a range of design-oriented components, we develop and file domestic and international design patent applications to help augment functional protection strategies.

A key feature of our work with our clients is to in-license and out-license patents and patent portfolios, collaboratively developing deal terms that match the commercial potential of the underlying patents and patent applications. We can help you develop and negotiate royalty structures, mile-stone payments, exclusive and non-exclusive licensing and a range of variations on industry-standard terms.

TRADEMARKS & BRANDING
From the moment a business begins, the careful development and protection of its brand identity present important opportunities to create and amplify visibility and proprietary strength. Our IP attorneys counsel our clients at the outset of the branding and brand identification to achieve maximum strength and defensibility, whether in the form of the name of a company, the brand and trade dress of products and services, domain names and integrated expressive works.

We also help our clients monetize and enforce their brands. Whether in the form of licensing, mergers or acquisitions, we provide strategies for conveying rights to others that maintain and accentuate the value and defensibility of those marks. On the enforcement side, our team actively monitors our clients’ brand portfolios and defends those portfolios from infringement and dilution by third parties and competitors.

LICENSING, TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND COOPERATIVE RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
The process of moving innovation to market often involves business and technology partnerships. We work with industry, investors and research organizations to optimize the sharing of risks and rewards arising from the commercialization process, while contextualizing deal and collaboration terms to reflect industry best practices, regulatory compliance and investment potential.

We also work with our clients to collaboratively develop and commercialize innovation, both at the research and development stage, as well as in the context of commercial partnering through such arrangements as marketing, distribution, white-labeling and OEM agreements.

IP DUE DILIGENCE & AUDITS
We work with our clients to assess and manage intellectual property assets across the full range of protection regimes, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and proprietary data schemes. Whether the context of executing transaction (such as a merger, acquisition or investment deal) or for the purposes of managing internal asset value, we can implement a structured, thorough review and assessment of intellectual assets and work with you to solidify and build value.
COPYRIGHT PROTECTION & TRANSACTIONS
In addition to protecting traditional expressive works, we also work with our clients to blend copyright protection into broader technology-specific commercialization activities. We help our clients identify valuable elements of their commercial and development offerings that can be the subject of formal protection, licensing and monetization.
TRADE SECRET PROTECTION & TRANSACTIONS
State and Federal laws provide key protection for valuable trade secrets – so long as the secrecy of the underlying subject matter is actively protected. We work with our clients to identify, protect and enforce their trade secrets. Through properly structured employment agreements and policies, services and consulting agreements and business-driven non-disclosure agreements, we can help maintain the value of company trade secrets.

We also help our clients identify and manage their trade secrets through due diligence review and/or audits, laying the groundwork for potential mergers, acquisitions or licenses with outside parties.

Intellectual Property & Technology

Read Our Blog

Threats From a Copyright Troll? Here’s What to Do

Threats From a Copyright Troll? Here’s What to Do

It’s a common scenario – you receive a threatening letter, alleging that you have infringed on a third-party’s copyrighted images and demanding you pay a certain amount in order to settle the claim. This undoubtedly raises a number of questions: Is this legitimate or...

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Intellectual Property & Technology

Attorneys

Practice Group Chair: Ted Theofrastous

Jon W. Groza

Partner

Alex Jones Cleveland Corporate Attorney

Alex E. Jones

Partner

Maribeth Meluch

Maribeth Meluch

Partner

Scott A. Norcross

Partner

Ted Theofrastous

Theodore C. Theofrastous

Partner

Anna E. Bullock

Associate

Kyle Stroup Cleveland Attorney KJK

Kyle D. Stroup

Associate

Stephanie P. Balla

Of Counsel

Ankita Patel

Paralegal

Shannon M. Zeisig

Paralegal

Jon W. Groza

Partner

Alex Jones Cleveland Corporate Attorney

Alex E. Jones

Partner

Maribeth Meluch

Maribeth Meluch

Partner

Scott A. Norcross

Partner

Ted Theofrastous

Theodore C. Theofrastous

Partner

Anna E. Bullock

Associate

Kyle Stroup Cleveland Attorney KJK

Kyle D. Stroup

Associate

Stephanie P. Balla

Of Counsel

Ankita Patel

Paralegal

Shannon M. Zeisig

Paralegal

Contact

CLEVELAND OFFICE

1375 East Ninth Street

One Cleveland Center, 29th Floor

Cleveland, OH 44114-1793

216-696-8700

 

 

COLUMBUS OFFICE

10 West Broad Street

One Columbus Center, Suite 2500

Columbus, OH 43215

614-427-5731