IP·Trade Secrets·Unfair Competition
A company's most important assets
lie out of sight
This is an age in which technology and data, brands and know-how account for most of a company's value. Unlike tangible assets, however, these intangible assets have no clearly drawn boundaries, so unless the rights are secured in advance it is difficult to contest an infringement properly even after it has occurred. MAST gets involved while those rights are still being created, designing registrations, contracts and internal management systems with you, so that when a dispute arrives you already have a defense you can use immediately.
The departure of key personnel, imitation by competitors and misappropriation of ideas in the course of collaboration arrive without warning, and the later the response, the harder the damage is to undo. In trade secret infringement and unfair competition matters, MAST has acted under a consistent strategy, from halting the conduct swiftly through preliminary injunctions to civil damages claims, criminal complaints and the response to the ensuing investigation. Drawing on experience representing both the party asserting infringement and the party defending against it, we assess the substance of the matter and what can realistically be proven, and set out the most practical route to resolution.
Key Services
Intellectual Property
We proactively protect the original ideas and rights of companies and creators, and turn the rights we secure into a competitive advantage for the business.
- +Strategic registration and protection of intangible assets such as copyrights, trademarks, portrait rights and design rights
- +Response to trademark and copyright infringement disputes, and representation in criminal complaints
- +Patent disputes, coordination of rights in joint works, and employee invention compensation litigation
- +Review of content distribution and licensing agreements, and support in contract negotiations
- +Legal advisory on IP-backed financing, valuation and monetization
Trade Secret Protection·Infringement Response
When technology and know-how leave the company together with key personnel, we intervene quickly to stop the damage from spreading.
- +Civil and criminal response to trade secret leakage and infringement by internal officers and employees
- +Preliminary injunctions prohibiting transfer to a competitor or competing business, and claims to enjoin trade secret infringement
- +Building trade secret management systems, and designing non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and security undertakings
- +Criminal defense for companies and their officers and employees accused of trade secret infringement
Unfair Competition Response
So that brand value built up over time is not eroded by imitation and unauthorized use, we deploy the legal remedies that restore order to competition.
- +Claims to enjoin unfair competition by competitors, and damages litigation
- +Response to acts causing confusion as to the source of goods or business, and to dilution of well-known marks
- +Disputes over emerging forms of unfair competition, such as unauthorized use of another party's work product and unauthorized data crawling
- +Remedies for unauthorized use of ideas obtained in the course of business dealings