Portfolio Maintenance

Our attorneys and staff are effective at managing issued patents and trademarks as they are able to provide requested information about your portfolio on short notice.

Our attorneys and staff have specific expertise in maintaining and renewing your foreign patents and trademarks.

Once a patent is issued in the USA, it must be “maintained.” A maintenance fee (or an annuity in foreign jurisdictions) is a fee that is paid to maintain a granted patent in force. Failure to timely pay the fee can cause the patent to expire prematurely, meaning that the rights provided by a patent are no longer enforceable.

As opposed to patents, which have a finite lifespan, trademarks can have infinite lifespans. Trademark registrations, however, have specific time frames in which the registration must be renewed. Failure to renew a registration on a timely basis can cause the registration to lapse. In countries where common law trademark rights are not recognized, the expiration of a trademark registration can be detrimental to a brand holder.

At Gottlieb, Rackman & Reisman, we have a deep understanding of the intricacies involved in maintaining patent and trademark portfolios and actively monitor and act on these important dates and deadlines. We actively monitor these dates for our clients through the use of a highly sophisticated “docketing system” which maintains docket information pertaining to both domestic and international patent and trademark portfolios for small single-property clients and multinational portfolios for those clients that do business on a global basis.

We also have a great deal of experience in recording documents in foreign jurisdictions that effect your pending or issued portfolio, including the recordal of security interests, releases, assignments, liens and other documents.