Intellectual Property
PrintA Big Picture Approach
Global multinationals, emerging growth companies and established mid-sized businesses all rely on McNair's business-focused approach to protect and exploit their intellectual property assets. When you ask us to secure a patent or trademark, we ask the right questions so we can address your needs with a full range of options that fit your overall business strategy.
If you face a dispute over infringement, a trade secret or a non-compete agreement, we use litigation as just one tool to solve your business problem. Our IP lawyers are positioned to offer you a multi-disciplinary approach to today's emerging issues in the development, protection and profitable exploitation of your intellectual property assets.
Our goal is to protect your investment, increase your market share and strengthen your competitive advantage.
Press Releases
- 50 McNair Attorneys Named The Best Lawyers in America 2019August 15, 2018
- Seven McNair Attorneys Named "Lawyer of the Year"August 15, 2018
- Seventeen McNair Attorneys Named Among Legal Elite of Greenville and ColumbiaAugust 2, 2018
- McNair's Intellectual Property Practice Continues to Grow with Addition of Tara LayJuly 5, 2017
- McNair Grows IP Practice and Charlotte Office with Addition of Three Shareholders and Three StaffMay 16, 2017
- Twenty-Three McNair Attorneys Named in 2017 Edition of South Carolina Super Lawyers®April 26, 2017
- 54 McNair Attorneys Included in The Best Lawyers in America© 2017August 15, 2016
- McNair Attorneys Named Among Legal Elite of the UpstateAugust 9, 2016
- McNair's Doug Lineberry will join Emory Law faculty for annual trial techniques advocacy programApril 28, 2016
- McNair Bolsters Intellectual Property Practice with Shareholder Lance LawsonNovember 16, 2015
- McNair Attorneys Named Among Legal Elite of the UpstateAugust 3, 2015
- McNair Attorneys Named Among Legal Elite of the UpstateAugust 4, 2014
- Twenty-Three McNair Attorneys Named in 2014 Edition of South Carolina Super Lawyers®April 25, 2014
- Douglas Lineberry Joins McNair Law Firm, P.A. in GreenvilleMay 31, 2013
- Sixteen McNair Attorneys Named in 2013 Edition of South Carolina Super Lawyers®May 3, 2013
- Fifteen McNair Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in South Carolina Super Lawyers & Rising Stars 2012®March 28, 2012
Events
- Want to Get a Patent?May 12, 2015
- Grand Strand Business Series Presents: Capturing and Monetizing Intellectual Property: Your Ideas = Your ProfitsOctober 14, 2014
- McNair Attorneys to Present at the Greenville Chamber's Small Business Owners' ForumAugust 13, 2014
- McNair Attorney to present at the South Carolina Bar's Business Literacy for the General Practitioner: Recognizing and Capitalizing Intellectual Property SeminarFebruary 4, 2014
- McNair Attorney to present at the National Business Institute's Applying the Rules of Evidence: What Every Attorney Needs to Know SeminarDecember 20, 2013
- McNair Attorney to present at the National Business Institute's Applying the Rules of Evidence: What Every Attorney Needs to Know SeminarDecember 19, 2013
- Intellectual Property for the Marketing Professional - Postponed until 2014December 5, 2013
- Intellectual Property for the Marketing Professional - Postponed until 2014December 3, 2013
Media Coverage
Publications
- WesternGeco: The Supreme Court Rules That Patent Damages Arising From Foreign Activities May Be PermittedJune 27, 2018
- Two End-of-Year Federal Government Deadlines ApproachingOctober 11, 2017
- Risks of Cover Page Provisional ApplicationsSeptember 29, 2017
- Supreme Court Clarifies Patent Exhaustion Doctrine and Limits Post-Sale ControlJune 8, 2017
- The Supreme Court of the United States Significantly Limits Venue in Patent Infringement CasesMay 23, 2017
- Northern District of California's Revised Patent Local Rules Require Early Disclosure of Damages InformationMarch 14, 2017
- Supreme Court Decision Limits Patent Infringement Risk for Exporting a Single Component of a Multi-Component InventionFebruary 27, 2017
- Trademark Infringers Can Limit The Damages They Must Pay If The Trademark Owner Fails To Prove That The Parties' Marketing Areas OverlapJanuary 18, 2017
- How Employment Agreements Can Protect An Employer's Intellectual Property And Defend Against Claims of MisappropriationJanuary 9, 2017
- Supreme Court to Hear "The Republic of Texas is No More"1 Patent Venue Case; A Potential Blow to Patent TrollsJanuary 4, 2017
- Improving Patent Eligibility for Your Software Despite the Prohibition of Patent Protection for "Abstract Ideas"December 14, 2016
- Samsung Secures 8-0 Win in the Supreme Court Reversing Apple's $400 Million Damage AwardDecember 7, 2016
- Online Service Providers: Don't Lose Your DMCA Safe Harbor ProtectionsNovember 17, 2016
- Patent Holders Add Another Arrow to Their QuiverJune 14, 2016
- Protecting the Next Big AppJune 6, 2016
- Just When Your Handbook Thought it Was Safe to Go Back In the Water: The Impact of the Defend Trade Secrets Act on EmployersMay 12, 2016
- McNair Intellectual Property Alert: Provisional Patent Applications - The Right Way and the Wrong WayApril 28, 2016
- McNair Intellectual Property Alert: Proper Inventorship Still Matters, Even With a Proper AssignmentMarch 15, 2016
- Update Your Trademark Registration to the Digital EraOctober 8, 2015
- Trademark and Service Mark Registrations: Do You Know the Rights?September 1, 2015
- Counsel's Corner: Intellectual Property for the HR ProfessionalJuly 22, 2015
- Software Patents are Dead, Long Live Software Patents: A Half Billion Dollar Bite of the AppleMarch 9, 2015
- Consumer Goods Labeling and False Advertising - It's Not Just the FDA AnymoreFebruary 11, 2015
- Perfecting A Security Interest in Intellectual PropertyDecember 9, 2014
- Protecting Your Intellectual Property From Halloween HauntsOctober 29, 2014
- Protecting Your Brand: What it takes to stop trademark infringement may be changingMarch 27, 2014
Reported Cases
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Denning Jr., Jim Special Counsel - Greenville, SC
jdenning@mcnair.net864.271.4940 Main -
Freeman, Hunter S.Shareholder - Greenville, SC
hfreeman@mcnair.net864.271.4940 Main -
Johnson, John Shareholder - Charlotte, NC
jjohnson@mcnair.net704.347.1170 Main -
Lawson, Lance A.Shareholder - Charlotte, NC
llawson@mcnair.net704.347.1170 Main -
Lay, Tara Associate - Charlotte, NC
tlay@mcnair.net704.347.1170 Main
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Lineberry, Douglas L.Shareholder - Greenville, SC
dlineberry@mcnair.net864.271.4940 Main -
Nicholson V, Benjamin E.Shareholder - Columbia, SC
nnicholson@mcnair.net803.799.9800 Main -
Quirk, Nathaniel T.Shareholder - Charlotte, NC
nquirk@mcnair.net704.347.1170 Main -
Thorson, Chad Shareholder - Charlotte, NC
cthorson@mcnair.net704.347.1170 Main
Although we are business lawyers first and foremost, we speak the technical language of clients in industries as diverse as biotechnology, software development, medical devices and motor vehicle components. On our IP team you'll find lawyers who have been in the computer industry, who have undergraduate training in physics and biochemistry, and who have both prosecuted hundreds of applications.
Because we speak the language of your business and the technical vernacular of your IP applications, you'll find us at your place of business. You'll see us attending the same industry and trade shows that you attend so that we can keep current on the developments that affect your company. And because our offices are located to serve the core of the business community in the Carolinas, we are accessible in person or by phone whenever you need us.
Clients who rely on McNair get the services of an IP lawyer who has a solid understanding of business realities. This means that our IP lawyers collaborate with colleagues throughout our firm to ensure that you get complete advice on the business impact of licensing, technology transfer agreements, strategic alliances, and pending or enacted legislation and regulations. We can help you with acquisitions and start-ups, offer guidance on the best way to protect trade secrets and confidentiality, and evaluate the best ways to use your intellectual property portfolio to shelter investments in products and markets.
We use our skill as lawyers who understand business to help growing companies accelerate their market penetration through strategic business combinations and alliances. Our transactional experience includes mergers and acquisitions designed to leverage clients' IP strengths, as well as licensing agreements that both extend and protect your ownership rights. Our lawyers guide you from the start in a transaction, making sure all patents, trademarks, copyrights and publicity rights are secured even before structuring the deal. We carefully draft the appropriate agreements, documenting all the terms of complex ownership and royalty issues and handling the details of domestic and foreign distribution.
Example of our Services
When business is going well, it's easy to absorb the expense of a patent. But when one of our clients, a manufacturer of motor vehicle components, faced financial difficulties because of an industry-wide downturn, it had to cut IP management fast. We developed a "patent triage" system which helped our client evaluate its portfolio, identified the most valuable technologies, and focused protection efforts there – immediately saving thousands of dollars while ensuring focused intellectual asset management.
With our broad technical experience, we can prepare and prosecute patents in the U.S. and abroad, across a full spectrum of applications – mechanical, chemical, biotechnical, software and design inventions. More important, you get patent counsel that is integrated into a value-added strategy in which we provide the legal component to help you exploit new business opportunities while protecting you from infringers. That includes protecting your patent-related trade secrets through effective non-competition agreements, and licensing your patents in ways that reduce infringement risk and tax liability while maximizing your control and income stream.
Example of our Services
Our client, a specialized manufacturer of products used by the U.S. military, faced a request by its major competitor to pay royalties on a product that the competitor had recently patented. We examined the competitor's patent and found that much of its technology existed either in prior art or in our client's own patents. McNair filed a re-examination request with the Patent and Trademark Office, and the PTO found the competitor's patent invalid. The result: rather than paying royalties, our client is now selling the patented product to its competitor, giving it a stronger market position than ever.
Our lawyers have established and asserted trademarks and managed trademark portfolios for companies involved in real estate, financial services, health care, hospitality and a wide range of other businesses. We report to our clients candidly about legal issues and cases, which is particularly important when the clients are offering their business interest to prosecuting trademarks and service marks, both in the U.S. and abroad. You get advice on clearance searches that identify the risks associated with using a mark as well as the impact of common law rights in standard usage and on the Internet. You'll know where you stand in the process for securing and maintaining federal or state level trademark or service mark registration. Your trademark portfolio gets complete attention so that assessments and renewals are timely and complete. And because we continually review how your marks are used, we often can identify new opportunities for licensing and enforcement.
Example of our Services
For more than 50 years, competing companies had made replacement parts for the military aircraft produced by a global aerospace client. We reviewed the competitive issues and concluded that our client's unique parts numbering system could be protected by trademarks, thus requiring other parts manufacturers to use the parts numbers and pay royalties to our client. It took 18 months of litigation and mediation among all the parties, but we secured a consent agreement that required all parts manufacturers to use the numbering system, creating a significant new income stream for our client.
No matter what the court or forum, McNair has the capabilities to protect your intellectual assets from infringers and to assert your competitive rights when other companies have not followed effective protection strategies. We have represented IP clients before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board, and the Patent Office Board of Appeals. Our definition of winning in IP disputes is to achieve your business objectives, whether the issue involves patent, trademark or copyright infringement, trade secrets misappropriation, cybersquatting and domain name rights, or software development contracts.