Copyrights

Apr 26 2024

What do the TM, SM, and ® symbols mean? What about the © symbol?

If a mark is registered with the USPTO (or with certain other countries’ trademark offices), the “circle R” or ® can be used. As the USPTO explains, improper use of the ® symbol can lead to problems. If a mark is not registered, but the owner claims common law rights, you may see a “TM”Read More…

Intellectual Property: Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents

We help clients secure and protect a wide range of intellectual property rights, including trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The firm handles both transactional matters, including the management of trademark portfolios and working with foreign counsel, and litigation and dispute resolution related to intellectual property matters.

Best Lawyers® has included the firm in its "Best Law Firms" rankings for trademark law, copyright law, and intellectual property litigation, and has selected the firm’s founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, as "Lawyer of the Year" in Greenville, SC for trademark law and for copyright law in prior years. Super Lawyers has named Vanderbloemen as one of the Top 25 Lawyers in South Carolina across all practice areas on multiple occasions, and he has also been included Greenville Business Magazine's Legal Elite.

Vanderbloemen is an active member of the International Trademark Association, including on its Publications and Internet Committees, and he previously served on the board of the Carolina Patent Trademark & Copyright Law Association.

Clients range from small start-up companies needing initial intellectual property protection to more established global enterprises. Vanderbloemen has represented clients in numerous industries, including:

Fitness
Trade Associations
Transportation
Food, Restaurants & Hospitality
Beverage and Breweries
Higher Education and Athletics

Apparel
Medical & Veterinary
Professional Services Firms
Entertainment & the Arts
Industrial and Building Products
Software, Website, & App Development

Vanderbloemen also has experience with a wide variety of intellectual property and technology disputes, including:

Enforcing client’s trademark rights in athletic tournament events in federal court trial;
Protecting client’s patent rights in industrial machinery design in federal court litigation;
Defending environmental spill containment product manufacturer against claims of patent infringement;
Representing clients before the U.S. Trademark Trial & Appeal Board in disputes over registration of trademarks;
Enforcing trademark and trade dress rights of fitness franchisor; and
Issuing and responding to numerous demands to cease and desist alleged infringement of intellectual property rights.

Franchising & Distribution Networks

The firm assists brands that wish to grow through franchising, helping to set up and manage their franchise systems. The firm has specific experience working with franchisors in the fitness, personal care, and restaurant industries. The firm also works with potential franchisees desiring to join franchise systems or who may need representation in disputes with their franchisors.

Franchise relationships are strongly intertwined with trademark and other intellectual property rights, and the firm's experience in these areas reinforces its ability to represent clients in the franchise industry.

The firm is active in the franchise community, and its founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, is a committee member with the American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising, has been published as a contributing author by the Franchise Law Journal, and has presented at the Forum’s annual meeting. Best Lawyers® has included the firm in its "Best Law Firms" rankings for franchise law.

Outsourced General Counsel Solutions

One of the creative ways the firm represents clients is through its offering of outsourced general counsel solutions. Under this approach, the firm serves essentially as a client's outsourced "in-house" counsel, or even an extension of the client’s existing in-house department, and has even worked in an “embedded” capacity at the client's locations and with its team members. This approach is well-suited for entrepreneurial and emerging businesses that have regular legal matters, but that do not want or need to carry the overhead of a full-time legal department. Yet it also works well for larger clients with existing in-house legal departments needing additional support, whether on discrete projects, recurring matters, or specific areas of the law, such as intellectual property.

The firm is able to provide alternative fee arrangements that give clients predictability about their overall legal costs, all while having regular access to counsel to assist in the ongoing needs of their businesses. The firm provides a wide range of services in this area, including contract preparation, review, and negotiation; intellectual property matters, including trademark prosecution and monitoring; responding to subpoenas and other requests for information; legal project management; employment-related matters such as non-competition agreements and non-disclosure agreements; regulatory matters; and hiring and coordinating with other outside counsel, including out-of-state and foreign counsel.

Business Disputes & Resolutions

The firm represents businesses in disputes involving intellectual property, franchising, and business matters, including those involving contractual relationships, partnerships, LLCs, and business torts. The firm prides itself on working with its business clients to consider strategic and creative resolutions that can often avoid or at least mitigate the costs and distractions associated with litigation, all while remaining capable of handling disputes that require court intervention. The firm's founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, has specific experience with disputes related to:

Intellectual property infringement
Franchise disputes
Purchase and supply agreements
License agreements
Non-competition and non-solicitation agreements
Software and website agreements
Disputes among business owners and joint ventures
False advertising

Appeals, Litigation, & Local Counsel Services

In addition to the services Vanderbloemen Law Firm handles for its clients in the areas of intellectual property, franchising, and business disputes, the firm can assist in a wide range of appeals, with a particular emphasis on federal court appeals, and in working with out-of-state firms needing local counsel in South Carolina courts. The firm's founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, served as a law clerk to the Hon. William B. Traxler, Jr. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and he has argued at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits. In law school, Vanderbloemen served as an assistant to the late Hon. Robinson O. Everett in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and also served as an intern to Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Vanderbloemen is the co-editor and a contributing author of the South Carolina Bar’s treatise, “Practicing before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: A Guide from Start to Finish,” published in 2021. He was selected by Best Lawyers as 2018 Appellate Practice Lawyer of the Year for Greenville. He has spoken to the South Carolina Bar and to the South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association on appellate matters, and he is often consulted and retained by other attorneys on appeal-related matters. He has argued numerous times before the federal appellate courts, including in multiple cases resulting in published opinions.

The firm has also assisted numerous out-of-state firms needing local counsel in South Carolina, including colleagues from California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Ohio.

This site is informational in nature, does not constitute legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Do not use this site to provide confidential information about a legal matter. Any reference on this site to a third party’s site or information is an accommodation only and not an endorsement or verification of that third party or its site or information. Any recited results or testimonials are not to be taken as a representation that the same or similar results can be obtained in the future. This firm does not seek, and this site is not intended to solicit, legal representation outside our state(s) of licensure. Pursuant to South Carolina Rule of Professional Conduct 7.2(d), the attorney responsible for this site’s content is Tom Vanderbloemen, Vanderbloemen Law Firm, P.A., 330 East Coffee Street, Greenville, SC 29601.

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