Branding, Advertising and Copyright

At Baker Botts, we offer a comprehensive suite of services to help you develop, build, maintain, protect, and enforce your trademarks, trade dress, advertising and marketing initiatives, and copyrights. Baker Botts’ dedicated team of branding, advertising and copyright attorneys offers a sophisticated understanding of the nuanced — and often, most public-facing — intellectual property and advertising issues that impact business decisions, including clearance, enforcement, licensing, and litigation. Our experience spans industries ranging from cosmetics to telecommunications, and we are proud to be on the cutting edge of today’s emerging legal issues, with recent engagements concerning product configuration trade dress, software copyrights, counterfeiting, gray market goods, data scraping, and advertising.

Baker Botts’ broad and business-focused experience is why some of the most recognizable companies in the world trust Baker Botts with their most valuable asset: their reputation.

Branding, Advertising and Copyright Litigation

Blending robust subject-matter experience with strategic litigation experience from pre-filing through trial, Baker Botts’ team provides valuable insight when branding, advertising and copyright issues are raised in court.

• Trademark, Unfair Competition and Lanham Act Litigation. Trial work involving high stakes trademark, trade dress, and advertising issues is one of Baker Botts’ key strengths. In addition to Lanham Act and trademark infringement cases, our litigation experience includes license disputes, breaches of contract, trade secret and trade dress disputes, advertising disputes, counterfeiting and gray market issues, and other disputes involving intellectual property. We are well-versed in working with experts to offer helpful survey and other evidence to support our clients’ claims and defenses.
• Domain Names and Internet Issues. Baker Botts is experienced in handling a variety of internet disputes, including UDRPs.  We work closely with clients to establish domain name monitoring procedures that focus efforts on targeting real issues impacting the bottom line without expending resources unnecessarily.
• Copyright Enforcement and Litigation. Baker Botts’ attorneys offer vital insights to clients seeking to litigate copyright rights in court, helping to prosecute strong copyright registrations, enforce copyrights in the event of infringement, and defend against claims of infringement and copyright trolls.
• Administrative Proceedings. We have prosecuted and defended opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and before its international equivalents for decades. Such actions form an important part of our practice; we have litigated over a thousand TTAB proceedings, including trials. We are also adept at handling advertising disputes before the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau, as well as appeals to the National Advertising Review Board (“NARB”).

Protecting Your Brand

Complementing its litigation work, Baker Botts manages the global trademark portfolios of many Fortune 500 companies and emerging entities across industries, including communications, financial, energy, food and beverage, technology, consumer products and retail services. With decades of dedicated experience in trademark prosecution and counseling, Baker Botts attorneys, paralegals, and staff provide our clients with insights on all aspects of trademark law, performing preliminary knock-out scans and trademark clearance, filing and prosecuting new applications, maintaining active trademark registrations, reviewing watch services and reporting on potential infringements, sending cease and desist letters, negotiating settlements and, when necessary, engaging in litigation before administrative tribunals, trademark offices or the courts. With a clear understanding of our clients’ trademark needs, we are situated to provide guidance on related matters, including rights of publicity/privacy, product configurations and trade dress protection, among a host of other intellectual property related issues.

• Clearance and Prosecution. Our clients are well served by the depth of our experience and our hands-on approach to prosecuting trademarks. We have worked with virtually every type of mark, including product configurations, packaging design, exterior signage, interior trade dress, scent marks, sound marks, and motion marks, and we are well versed in the various procedural options available throughout the registration process.
• Policing. Owning great IP is not enough. At Baker Botts, we help our clients protect their investments through counseling, policing efforts, and, if need be, through litigation. With an eye towards each client’s priorities and goals for intellectual property enforcement, we work collaboratively to lay the foundation for robust brand protection, deter infringing activities and, and take any legal action, where necessary.

Advertising and Marketing

Baker Botts boasts a knowledgeable and sophisticated advertising and marketing practice is comprised of lawyers who litigate and render advice on various aspects of advertising and marketing law and related issues. We recognize the myriad of new ways our clients advertise their products and services, and have worked closely with clients to negotiate sponsorship agreements, cross-marketing and promotional content agreements, licensing deals, talent agreements, and commercial co-venture agreements in industries ranging from apparel to beverages, and from consumer electronics to wireless services.

• Advertising Clearance. We conduct soup-to-nuts review of proposed broadcast, print and online campaigns to ensure compliance with the complex web of laws, rules and regulations related to advertising.
• Contests, Sweepstakes, and Promotions. We offer comprehensive services to clients wishing to operate contests, sweepstakes and promotions, including drafting official rules, counseling on entry mechanisms, preparing privacy and publicity releases, rights to user-generated content, and advising on cross-promotional agreements.
• Claim Substantiation. Whether it’s a product efficacy claim, a price comparison or a sensory claim, we are experienced in working with clients they develop solid, defensible substantiation to make truthful and accurate statements in their advertising. We are also adept at challenging and defending against advertising claims of competitors, whether through cease and desist letters, NAD proceedings or federal litigation.
• Digital Advertising and Social Media Counseling. We understand the digital advertising landscape and are well-positioned to help clients lawfully navigate it while effectively engaging consumers. We review social media schedules, render advice on influencer marketing, provide guidance on native advertising, and help our clients focus their advertising efforts while respecting consumers’ privacy.
• Sponsorships and Cause-related Marketing. We have worked closely with clients to negotiate sponsorship agreements, trademark licensing deals, talent agreements, and commercial co-venture agreements in industries ranging from apparel to beverages, and from consumer electronics to wireless services.

Copyright

Copyright law spans countless industries, and our lawyers offer substantial experience in copyright prosecution and enforcement across diverse categories of copyrightable works, including technology, mobile applications and software, toys, artwork, fabric and knitwear designs, fashion accessories, architectural design, jewelry, literary and sculptural works, and advertising and packaging materials. We advise clients on a wide range of copyright matters, including whether, when, and how to obtain federal registrations, licensing and permissions, infringement, and fair use. We counsel clients on copyright-related statutes including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Audio Home Recording Act, and other topics relating to copyright law’s ever-changing jurisprudence and landscape.