Apart from our Title & Trademark searches and reports, SmithDehn INDIA also performs Copyright searches and Negative-Checks, and prepares reports based on the results of these searches. For more information on our searches and reports visit our AccuMark website.

Some of the other IP (intellectual property) related services we perform include:

The moment an original work is created (in the United States) in a tangible form, it is protected under the Copyright Act. However, to maximize the legal benefits, copyright owners should register their works with the U.S. Copyright Office. One advantage of registration is that the owner or creator gains the right to sue for infringement of his or her work and also may become entitled to statutory damages and attorneys' fees and costs for a successful claim.

SmithDehn INDIA has a team of legal process outsourcing attorneys dedicated solely to handling copyright issues. We can provide copyright and design related legal services in the areas of registration and enforcement, throughout the world. We handle the careful preparation and drafting of copyright applications and the process of registration. SmithDehn INDIA also can provide litigation support in those areas, and for any commercial or other litigation. We have been instrumental in defeating meritless copyright claims against our corporate clients. We also have been successful in obtaining difficult registrations for our clients both in India and in the United States.

It is wise to conduct a thorough search of various databases to ensure that your trademark or service mark is not infringing on someone else's mark, before filing a trademark application. Even if a mark similar to yours is not registered with the trademark office, if it has been in use for some time, it can enjoy certain legal protections. A trademark search is a valuable tool in determining the strength of your mark. Click here for more details on SmithDehn INDIA's AccuMark^® Trademark/Title Search Report.

The steps involved in preparing a mark for registration all can be handled by our legal outsourcing team at SmithDehn INDIA. To file a trademark application with the USPTO, a detailed application, including drawings and specimens of the mark to be registered, must be prepared. Additionally, it is imperative that the mark is registered in all the relevant international classes to cover all products or areas where the mark may be used.

Once the application is in the hands of the examining attorney at the USPTO, he or she may issue an "office action" against the application. A non-substantive office action would involve minor changes to the application that would make it ready for publication. A substantive office action issued by the USPTO would involve an actual refusal to register the application on some ground (such as likelihood of confusion with some other already registered or pending mark.) To prepare a response to a substantive office action, the action would have to be reviewed and a brief prepared.

Thanks to a brief prepared entirely by the legal process outsourcing professionals at SmithDehn INDIA, we were able to overturn the denial of a trademark application of our client, a $300 million steel company, for its proposed new line of products.

Our LPO team crafted complicated arguments, made them understandable, and marshaled considerable supporting evidence, to persuade the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reverse its position. The USPTO had denied our client's application on the grounds of two allegedly competing registrations with the same name. With the help of SmithDehn INDIA, a new product line for our client was able to move forward.

Sometimes, applications for trademark registration are filed before the owner actually uses the mark in commerce. Then the application is filed on an "intent-to-use" basis. Once the mark is approved and published, the owner of the mark has six-months in which to file a "statement of use," showing that the mark is being used in commerce. If the mark is not yet being used, then the owner may file an application for a six-month extension of the time limit. We can take care of all of these filings and keep track of the relevant dates too.