Hunton offers comprehensive branding services, from mark selection, clearance, and registration, to licensing, enforcement, and portfolio management. We partner with clients from the start to evaluate the marketplace, register and protect marks, and help them establish their brands as revenue-generating assets that increase in value and add to their bottom line.

Our approach to trademark practice has garnered praise from rankings organizations and publications such as Chambers USA, Legal 500, World Trademark Review, and Managing Intellectual Property. CSC® Trademark Insider® has recognized us as a top 30 firm by US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark filings and Thomson Reuters has recognized us as a leader in trademark opinion work; we also perform more than four times as many online searches as any other firm in the US.

Selection, Searching, and Clearance

A trademark can be a company’s most valuable and long-lived asset. We guide clients in the selection of trademarks and service marks that will be strong, registrable, and enforceable. We advise clients on the availability of marks, conducting our own searches and reviews. We provide strategies to avoid or overcome existing marks and other challenges, identifying potentially problematic third-party references and uses as early as possible. We conduct clearance and filing campaigns of extreme breadth, and can search almost any foreign trademark registry from our desks with proprietary software covering the US and 185 jurisdictions worldwide. We also have a robust network of foreign associates for detailed local advice. And we use highly trained paralegals and refined screening, searching, and investigative resources. As a result of our high-volume practice, we are privy to significant discounts from a leading US trademark search firm, which we pass directly to our clients.

Registration – US and Worldwide

We prosecute and maintain tens of thousands of trademark applications and registrations worldwide, and have filed applications in the USPTO, European Community, and other foreign countries, often avoiding the added cost of foreign associates by filing under the Madrid Protocol. Our lawyers are supported by experienced, savvy trademark paralegals, some with decades of experience, allowing us to prosecute applications efficiently and cost-effectively.

We handle all aspects of the registration process, analyzing and responding to USPTO office actions and communications, and helping clients to overcome USPTO refusals, including those based on an alleged likelihood of confusion, mere descriptiveness, improper identification of goods and services, and improper specimens of use. We register every type of trademark, including word marks, logos, slogans, color marks, sound marks, print marks, trade dress, design marks, and packaging configurations, and have been at the forefront of registering non-traditional marks, including color, shape, scent, and taste.

Portfolio Management

We manage trademark portfolios for hundreds of clients, totaling thousands of marks in nearly 200 countries. Our sophisticated trademark docketing management system helps us track, maintain, and report registrations and upcoming deadlines—for domestic and international trademarks—in a customized manner, and allows us to efficiently provide trademark information to our clients for various business purposes, such as mergers, acquisitions, and security agreements.

We also work closely with clients to safeguard marks and use them to prevent unintentional loss or weakening of trademark rights. We audit and review websites, advertising copy, and other materials to ensure that trademark owners present their marks consistently, use proper notice, and do not use marks in a descriptive or generic manner.

Advertising and Brand Protection

Protecting against counterfeits that threaten the value of a brand or products may feel like a game of “whack a mole,” with a low barrier to entry for sales via online marketplaces and lack of consumer awareness regarding “fake” products. We help our clients find and triage unlawful activity and uncover counterfeits. We have represented companies using hundreds of brands worldwide and provide IP policing programs and trademark watch services that alert us to potential infringement so we can take immediate action.

Domain Name Acquisition

Acquiring the best domain name to accompany an important trademark is rarely easy. With an understanding of domain name pricing and negotiation strategy, we counsel clients on an array of domain name matters—including portfolio management, privacy issues, monetization strategies, reputation management, hijacking and reverse hijacking, sale, transfer and licensing, terms of service, and even liquidation, when necessary—to help protect them from those who register domain names in bad faith and create websites likely to cause consumer confusion.