Intellectual Property and Technology
Technology is changing the way we live, the way we conduct business and the law. Brown & James is on the leading edge of legal issues involving computers, new technologies, the Internet and electronic commerce. The firm has pioneered the application of traditional trademark and unfair competition principles to the law of electronic commerce.
New technologies and the Internet bring a host of new trademark issues to the forefront, including, claims of so-called cybersquatting of domain names, trademark infringement with respect to metatags of web sites, infringement and dilution concerns related to Internet banner advertisements, unauthorized linking and framing of web sites, spamming, gripe sites, false advertising and more.
In addition to handling technology related disputes, we also have substantial experience handling more traditional intellectual property disputes, including trademark and copyright infringement, unfair competition, false advertising and trade secret misappropriation. We come to these cases from the perspective of trial lawyers with the experience and capability of prosecuting and defending the cases through preliminary injunction hearings, bench and jury trials and appeals.
Some of the technology-related cases and intellectual property disputes we have handled in the last few years include:
- A software dispute between a city and a St. Louis software company in which the city claimed that the software was defective.
- A dispute between two companies relating to the use of a trademarked word in the meta-tags of an Internet web site.
- A claim of misappropriation of software made by an employee against his employer.
- A dispute between a software company and a hospital system in which the hospital system claimed that the software sold was defective and caused business interruption.
- A claim of consultant malpractice by a construction company against a software integrator.
- Alleged trademark infringement against a major airline concerning the use of "e-ticket" technology.
- Two separate cases by major beer manufacturers against alleged infringers of famous trademarks.
- A dispute about trademark infringement on the Internet between two competing software-related companies.