Jones Walker addresses client needs in all aspects of patent practice. We prosecute patent applications for clients in many diverse technology fields, such as food products, paint primer coatings, paper products, glass and aramid fiber products, oil and gas exploration, micro-machining, medical and biological technologies, nanotechnologies, hydrocarbon plant processing, remote sensing devices, digital signal processing algorithms, and industrial valve technologies. When necessary, Jones Walker guides clients through more complex prosecution procedures such as appeal, re-examination, or re-issue. In addition to prosecution of U.S. patent applications, Jones Walker works with an extensive network of foreign associates to ensure patent protection in any part of the world necessary to further clients’ business interests. Regardless of whether the client is an individual inventor, a non-profit organization, a university, or a Fortune 500 company, such as our clients Freeport McMoran, Lockheed Martin, or Exxon Mobil, our attorneys work closely with innovators to provide the broadest patent protection available.
In other patent transactions, Jones Walker develops and negotiates an entire spectrum of relevant agreements for and on behalf of clients, including licenses, joint venture/development agreements, distributorship agreements, sponsored research agreements, and manufacturing agreements. Jones Walker also provides comprehensive intellectual property counseling in matters relating to the client’s patent portfolio or that of its competitors. In particular, our attorneys routinely strategize commercialization and revenue generation, draft infringement and invalidity opinions, conduct due diligence investigations in advance of corporate transactions, and manage design-around studies. The bottom line is an effort to understand the scope of our clients’ and their competitors’ patent rights, and to evaluate all of the risks associated with various courses of action, including the risk of litigation.
Although avoiding litigation is often a primary object of client counseling, there are times when an intellectual property right is only as valuable as a client’s determination to enforce his patent right, or to defend his right to manufacture or sell a product under threat of enforcement from another. Jones Walker has considerable experience representing clients as both defendants and plaintiffs in patent litigation. Regardless of whether at the discovery, Markman, summary judgment, or trial stage of the lawsuit, Jones Walker attorneys remain conscious of the client’s end game and direct the litigation strategy accordingly.
