The three jobs, and why firms are rarely good at all three
Intellectual property work divides into securing rights, clearing risk, and enforcing what you own. They are genuinely different disciplines. Securing rights is technical drafting and a long correspondence with a government examiner. Clearing risk is search and judgment, most of its value delivered in a single honest answer about whether to proceed. Enforcement is litigation, with its own courts, deadlines, and temperament.
A firm that only files will refer the fight out on the day it matters. A litigation boutique will take the fight and send you elsewhere for the filing. Neither arrangement is dishonest; it just means the attorney who eventually stands up for your patent has never read the prosecution history that decides the case. Ask any firm you are considering which of the three they do in-house, and what happens on the day you need the other two.
The credential most people do not know to check
Any licensed attorney can handle trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Patents are different. To prepare and prosecute a patent application before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, an attorney must also have passed the patent bar, a separate examination that generally requires a degree in science or engineering. Registration is a matter of public record and takes a minute to verify.
This is why "IP attorney" and "patent attorney" are not synonyms. Every patent attorney is an IP attorney; the reverse is not true. If your matter involves an invention, that registration is the first thing to confirm, before fees, before offices, before anything else.
At Leavitt and Eldredge, senior partner Richard Eldredge is a licensed Professional Engineer and a USPTO-registered patent attorney, registered with the office since 2008. Managing partner Brandon Leavitt is a published biochemist and the firm’s lead litigator, admitted to practise in all four Texas federal district courts, Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western, and approved to litigate in federal courts in Arizona, Utah, and California. He has argued before federal district courts, the Federal Circuit, and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Their combined experience exceeds thirty years, all of it in intellectual property.
The moments that decide whether protection is still available
Intellectual property is unforgiving about timing in a way most areas of law are not. Four moments matter more than the rest:
- Before you disclose an invention publicly. A demonstration, a sale, a trade show, a published paper, or a crowdfunding page can start deadlines, and in much of the world outside the United States a public disclosure before filing ends the right entirely.
- Before you commit money to a name. Signage, packaging, and a domain are all cheaper to change before they exist. The United States awards trademark priority by filing date, and a clearance search is a fraction of a rebrand.
- Before a contractor builds something for you. Work produced by someone who is not your employee does not belong to your business automatically. It needs a written assignment, signed, and the time to get it is before payment.
- The day a demand letter arrives. The response window in those letters is usually shorter than the time it takes to find and engage counsel, and answering one on your own can concede facts that are difficult to take back.
Where your attorney sits, and where it stops mattering
Patents, trademarks, and copyrights are federal. A registered United States practitioner can file and prosecute on your behalf from anywhere in the country, and virtually all of that work travels by email, document exchange, and phone. Searching for counsel by proximity alone narrows the field for a reason that mostly does not apply.
Geography does matter twice. Litigation happens in a specific federal district, so a firm that cannot appear in the court where your case would be filed has to bring in someone who can. And there are conversations, particularly early ones about a complicated invention, that are simply better in person. We keep offices across Texas, in Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth, Allen, Carrollton, Mansfield, Houston, and The Woodlands, and we represent clients well beyond it.
Flat fees, and why the structure matters more than the number
Hourly billing on intellectual property is difficult for a small business to plan around, because the process runs for months and the meter has no ceiling. We quote flat fees in writing before work starts: $1,200 for a federal trademark, $2,000 for a provisional patent application, $5,000 for a nonprovisional, and $1,850 for a Texas LLC. Payment by installment is available, and the full list is on our cost and fees page.
Whoever you hire, ask for the structure in writing. A firm that will not put a number on the work before starting it is telling you something useful.
Talking to us
Consultations are free and are a real conversation about what you have, what is already exposed, and what is worth protecting first. If you already know the category, go straight to trademark registration, the patent process, copyright, or trade secrets. Otherwise, call 844-728-3680, text 682-201-8577, or use the contact page. We answer Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm CST.