For more than two decades, Tharpe & Howell has been effectively and innovatively representing small and mid-size businesses with all their needs – transactional work, business and intellectual property litigation. Drawing on hands-on experience garnered as executives solving day-to-day problems in a business environment, our attorneys quickly understand how each transaction or claim impacts your business and its operations. And we design and implement strategies for effectively handling each matter to achieve your business objectives.
Our attorneys bring significant experience and expertise to handling a broad range of transactional activities – including contract review and drafting; advising on buy/sell agreements; product and service licensing agreements; partnership, agency and joint venture agreements; and establishing business entities such as partnerships, corporations and LLC's.
When it comes to business and commercial litigation, we approach each matter as if it’s our dollars, business and reputation at stake. Based on our client's business needs, opportunities and objectives, we analyze the potential impact of each case, the various problem-solving alternatives, and the economics of litigation to insure that the right business decision is made each time.
In our fast paced business environment, it is not unusual for commercial enterprises to cross-paths, sometimes resulting in conflicts. In many cases, litigation has become another “tool” to accomplish a business purpose. We work closely with our clients to determine if a particular contract or business tort case is best handled with a business solution or through litigation. Either way, we create a cost effective strategy to accomplish our client’s goals.
Intellectual Property is now the cornerstone of many businesses. On the one hand, protecting IP and maximizing its value is more critical than ever. On the other hand, the more valuable your IP becomes, the more vulnerable it becomes to attacks by competitors and others.
For more than 20 years, we’ve been partnering with businesses to implement cost-effective strategies that secure and enforce maximum IP protection. And we’ve been vigorously and successfully defending them against infringement and related claims to minimize liability and damage exposure.
Our Intellectual Property representation includes:
- Working with you to identify your intellectual property rights and assets, as well as to assess the current status of their protection. Then designing a cost-effective strategy to obtain and enforce maximum protection.
- Helping insure that the products or services you sell, and the manner in which you sell them, does not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. When claims arise, helping you value your IP assets and their impact on your bottom line to determine the best means of resolving the claims.
- Aggressively and efficiently defending copyright, trademark, trade-dress, and unfair competition actions.
- Helping you identify and maximize licensing opportunities while avoiding potential pitfalls. Also, crafting the agreements necessary to ensure you obtain what you bargained for, while avoiding disputes in the future.
- Working with individuals, businesses and insurance companies to analyze appropriate coverage for pending actions, including that based on Advertising Injury Endorsements and insurer’s defense and indemnity participation.
