You created it. You bought the rights to it. You want to use it. You want to generate income from it. You want to keep a competitor from using it. You want to design around it. We get it.
“It” is intellectual property: copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, trade dress, commercial identity, rights of privacy and publicity. For many of our clients, it is their most important asset. It may also represent their greatest threat. Anything that important deserves a thoughtful legal strategy.
The BrickHouse Law Group provides innovative approaches to tough issues confronting content creators and users of all types and industries. We represent clients in all aspects of intellectual property rights ownership, acquisition, protection, use, and transfer, such as:
- Conducting customized intellectual property audits and pre-clearance copyright and trademark review
- Creating contracts to ensure ownership of rights in a new entertainment property
- Litigating and negotiating licensing agreements and confidentiality and non-compete agreements
- Defending publishers in copyright, rights of privacy and publicity, and defamation cases
- Helping documentary filmmakers secure the necessary releases to finish a film
- Litigating copyright ownership and record contract issues on behalf of artists and record companies.
We focus much of our practice on helping clients maximize the value of their IP and avoid disputes. But, we have the experience and infrastructure when we need to go to court. Our attorneys have first-chair jury trial, appellate, motion practice and Trademark Trial and Appeals Board experience in copyright, trademark and patent litigation, licensing and royalty disputes, trade secrets, trade dress and design patent litigation, unfair competition, defamation, and rights of publicity and privacy. We have represented software developers and purchasers, comic book and action figure creators, clients in the financial services industry, manufacturers of railroad and emergency vehicle lighting, and a wide range of businesses in other industries in connection with trade secrets, non-competition and confidentiality agreements.
Not only do we get IP, we also get our clients. Our personal, non-legal careers and interests help us bring unique insights to our IP, Media & Entertainment clients. Mike Kahn is the award-winning author of eight novels and numerous short stories, and is thus familiar with publishing and other entertainment contracts from both sides of the deal. Mike is listed in Best Lawyers in America in four categories: Entertainment, Intellectual Property, Media and First Amendment Law. Geoff Gerber is a comic-book aficionado and nationally-recognized authority on character copyright issues who is regularly invited to speak on intellectual property at comic conventions. Pete Salsich III is a former musician and graphic artist whose work includes the mascot design for the St. Louis University Billikens. Since 2007, he has been listed in the Best Lawyers in America in the area of Entertainment Law.
