Archives: Practice Areas

Business Services

Our attorneys offer a full range of business services from counselling clients on business formations to litigation and employment issues. Our goal is to provide you with the guidance you need to be profitable and achieve your goals. We believe litigation avoidance is always the best strategy for your bottom-line, but sometimes litigation is the only choice. Our experienced business litigators have tried cases all across California on a wide variety of issues including breach of contract, construction defect, wrongful termination, shareholder actions and corporate dissolutions.
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Unfair Competition

Unfair competition claims typically go hand-in-hand with trademark infringement. Generally there are two types of unfair competition claims: (1) unfair competition claims based on state law; and (2) unfair competition claims based on federal law, namely, the Lanham Act. In a nutshell, unfair competition is the dishonest or fraudulent acts of a competitor in trade and commerce. Unfair competition addresses circumstances where consumers have been misled, or deceptive trade practices have been used to harm your business.
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Copyright Litigation

Copyright litigation, involves the assertion of your copyright against someone who is using it in whole or in part. In business this can take on many forms: someone using your marketing material without permission or someone using lines of your software code rather than writing the code from scratch. Whether you have been accused of copyright infringement or believe someone is infringing your copyright, let us help you.
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Trademark Litigation

Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark. This use can be in connection with goods or services and may lead to confusion, deception, or a misunderstanding about the actual company a product or service came from. If a business uses a “confusingly similar” trademark the result can be devastating to your business. Sales can be improperly diverted from your business to the business selling “knockoffs.” Trademark owners can take legal action if they believe their marks are being infringed. If infringement of a trademark is proven, a court order can prevent a defendant from using the mark, and the owner may be awarded monetary relief. The attorneys at McCartney Dallmann have decades of experience defending and asserting claims of trademark infringement.
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Patent Infringement

If you have a patent and a person or a company “makes, uses, sells, or offers to sell” a product covered by your patent, without your permission such as under a license, this may constitute patent infringement. Patent infringement is the act of stealing another’s invention. If you believe someone has infringed your patent or if you have been accused of infringement, we are here to help. Our attorneys have decades of experience litigating patent cases.
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Trade Secret

A trade secret is information that has either actual or potential independent economic value by virtue of not being generally known, has value to others who cannot legitimately obtain the information, and is subject to reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
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Copyright

A copyright is a form of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. Let us help you register your copyright.
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Trademark

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of another. A service mark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. Our attorneys have extensive experience in helping our clients get and maintain their trademarks.
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Patent

A patent is a right granted to an inventor by the federal government that permits the inventor to exclude others from making, selling or using the invention for a period of time. The patent system is designed to encourage inventions that are unique and useful to society. There are three different kinds of patents: utility patents, design patents and plant patents. Utility patents are granted to new machines, chemicals, and processes. Design patents are granted to protect the unique appearance or design of manufactured objects, such as the surface ornamentation or overall design of the object. Plant Patents are granted for the invention and asexual reproduction of new and distinct plant varieties, including hybrids. Our attorneys have extensive experience procuring utility and design patents.
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