Practice Areas
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Intellectual Property

Foulston Siefkin formed its Intellectual Property team using the varied expertise of the firm's diverse practice base. They concentrate on copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, unfair competition, and related intellectual property (“IP”) matters. This broad-based approach employs Foulston Siefkin’s full range of services to meet the diverse IP needs of its clients.

The Intellectual Property Team analyzes IP assets to explore potential liabilities and proposes practical protection strategies, always tailored to our clients’ needs and decisions. The IP strategies are then carefully crafted and vigorously prosecuted. Representative projects include exhaustively reviewing all IP agreements within businesses both large and small, developing a comprehensive software licensing and maintenance scheme, creating nation-wide branding concepts, acquiring and selling business with significant IP assets, and licensing rights for manufacturing and retailing. A broad array of practice areas is involved.

Our IP business lawyers license intellectual property rights, develop commercial branding concepts, prosecute federal and state trademarks and service marks, clear and register copyrights, and analyze potential intellectual property insurance and liability containment methods.

Our IP business and employment lawyers craft agreements, programs, and procedures to allow businesses to fully secure intellectual property produced by their workers. Typical agreements include employment agreements, intellectual property assignments, trade secret and non-disclosure
agreements, and non-competition contracts.

Our IP transactional lawyers convey, license, and analyze intellectual property in mergers, acquisitions, and asset or stock purchases and sales. Our IP tax lawyers analyze the tax aspects of IP ownership, acquisition, license, and sale.

Our IP litigators supply their experience in trial and appeal practice in state and federal courts to IP matters, including Kansas Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions in the copyright, trademark, trade secret, patent, unfair competition,and non-compete areas. Additionally, our IP litigators have been involved in all aspects of alternative dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration in IP disputes.

 

Additional Info

Related Areas

Attorneys and Contacts

Primary Contacts:
R. Douglas Reagan, Partner
Direct Phone: 913.253.2148
Direct Fax: 866.347.1475
dreagan@foulston.com
Overland Park Office
William P. Matthews, Partner
Direct Phone: 316.291.9556
Direct Fax: 866.346.2028
bmatthews@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Other attorneys practicing in this area:
Gary L. Ayers, Partner
Direct Phone: 316.291.9530
Direct Fax: 866.346.1938
gayers@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Jim Goering, Partner
Direct Phone: 316.291.9709
Direct Fax: 866.450.2985
jgoering@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Michael J. Norton, Partner
Direct Phone: 316.291.9743
Direct Fax: 866.346.2031
mnorton@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Todd N. Tedesco, Partner
Direct Phone: 316.291.9776
Direct Fax: 866.347.5138
ttedesco@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Gordon G. Kirsten II, Special Counsel
Direct Phone: 316.291.9538
Direct Fax: 866.347.9618
gkirsten@foulston.com
Wichita Office
Alicia E. Bodecker, Associate
Direct Phone: 316.291.9710
Direct Fax: 866.347.9614
abodecker@foulston.com
Wichita Office

Foulston Siefkin strongly discourages the use of email communication for the transmission of confidential or sensitive information. Do not send personal and/or confidential information to any Foulston Siefkin attorney(s) unless or until you have been expressly authorized or directed to do so. Please do not assume that information sent via email will be privileged or confidential. The transmission of such a message through these connections will not, and should not be construed to, create an attorney-client relationship between Foulston Siefkin and you or anyone else.

Representative Clients

  • Cessna Aircraft Company
  • The Coleman Company
  • Koch Industries, Inc.
  • Fox & Hound Restaurant Group
  • KeyCentrix, Inc.
  • BeautyFirst, Inc.
  • Bombardier Aerospace Learjet
  • Envision, Inc.
  • Hays Medical Center, Inc.
  • Spirit AeroSystems, Inc.
  • Sterling College
  • Fuller Brush Company
  • Thermal Solutions, Inc.
  • Wichita Area Technical College
  • Wichita State University

 

Areas of Representation

Federal and State Trademark Registrations

Trademark, Copyright, and Patent Licensing

Trademark and Trade Dress Infringement

Copyright Registrations

Copyright Infringement

Trade Secret Protection and Misappropriation

Patent Infringement

Employee Intellectual Property Assignments

Unfair Competition and False Advertising

Advertising Injury Insurance Defense

Franchising

Mergers and Acquisitions

Tax

Covenant Not to Compete Litigation

Entertainment Litigation

Media Liability

Antitrust


Representation Experience

  • Drafted, negotiated, and reviewed technology licensing contracts (software licenses, software development agreements, joint ventures, satellite uplink agreements, data feed contracts), trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and related matters for a broad array of concerns, from large entities doing work internationally to small start-up Internet companies.
  • Foulston Siefkin attorneys have extensive experience in the acquisition, licensing, and protection of intellectual property assets, including trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and patents. As principal technology counsel for several large clients, they have prepared, reviewed and negotiated hundreds of software licenses, software development, and technology sales agreements for both for licensors/sellers and licensees/buyers.
  • With recent changes in federal privacy laws, Foulston Siefkin attorneys have expanded their IP practice to include advising clients concerning the vast regulatory schemes impacting the acquisition, dissemination, and use of customer information, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, and others.

 

Issue Alerts

Articles and Publications

Presentations

  • Trademarks & Copyrights in the Digital Age
    Kansas Society of CPAs, 2003. 9th Annual Wichita River Festival Business and Tax Advisor's Clinic.
  • Business Associate Agreements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    Foulston Siefkin HIPAA Implementation Developing Your Battle Plan Seminar, 2002.
  • An Introduction to the Law of Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets and Internet Domain Names
    Kansas Association of Legal Assistants, 2000.
  • An Introduction to the Law of Copyrights, Trademarks, Trade Secrets and Internet Domain Names
    Kansas Society of Certified Public Accountants, 2000. Sixth Annual Business and Tax Advisors Clinic.

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