Practice Areas

Intellectual Property Law

Mr. Karcioglu has been providing intellectual property counsel to domestic and international corporations since 1998. During that time, he has focused on identifying, procuring, and protecting clients' intellectual property assets worldwide.

Our firm provides full-service trademark and copyright counsel, and has represented clients in a variety of industries, including fashion and apparel, insurance and financial services, industrial machinery, food and beverage distribution, advertising, jewelry manufacture and distribution, cosmetics, textiles, and computer software. We regularly provide our clients with legal services in both contentious and non-contentious matters.

Some of the services we provide include:

Trademark and Copyright Protection and Registration

• We perform trademark clearance, and review trademark availability searches;
• We draft formal clearance opinions for domestic and international clients;
• We prepare and file Federal trademark registrations in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and respond to USPTO Office Actions;
• We represent clients and act as counsel to other attorneys in formal Opposition Proceedings in the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB);
• We prepare and file copyright registrations and recordals, and assist in copyright licensing, non-disclosure, and work-made-for-hire agreements;
• We conduct counterfeiting investigations, and enforce clients' copyrights and trademarks;

Opinion and Licensing

We advise domestic and international clients seeking to make the most of their IP portfolios. Whether you are launching a new businesses or product lines, or simply maintaining and protecting your brand portfolio, our firm can help you make the most of your current assets, and help you develop new ones.

We provide due diligence and IP valuation services for corporate mergers and acquisitions, and also negotiate and draft licenses and co-branding agreements, and counsel clients on advertising issues in order to reduce legal exposure with respect to comparative and false advertising, as well as potential trademark and copyright infringement.

IP Litigation

Mr. Karcioglu has provided "big firm" IP litigation services to his clients for almost a decade. He has acted on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants, and also as lead litigation counsel to larger law firms. We have a demonstrated litigation record and have negotiated advantageous settlement terms for clients involved in the federal and state courts, as well as on matters in front of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States.

Although a vast majority of intellectual property cases settle before trial, we feel that our clients are best served by a legal team that has the experience to to proceed through trial, if necessary. This experience permits us to negotiate more favorable settlements and better protect our clients' business interests.

Recent representative cases include:

• Obtaining a favorable jury verdict for the plaintiff and trademark holder in federal district court; we later settled this action later on terms favorable to our client.
• Opposing an emergency motion for injunctive relief in a federal trade dress and copyright infringement action; once we the emergency motion was successfully opposed, we were able to negotiate an economically advantageous settlement for our client, a foreign corporation doing business in the United States.
• Successfully negotiating rapid settlement in favor of defendant in trademark infringement action. This case is indicative of how effective experienced counsel can be, and resulted in a very favorable settlement for our client before substantial litigation expenses were undertaken.
• Successfully representing defendants in trade dress and copyright infringement action, and having case transferred to defendants’ local jurisdiction. The Federal District Court granted our motion to transfer this action to California – defendants' home venue, and held that that the larger corporate plaintiff could not force our client to defend a lawsuit thousands of miles from their home state. The Court's opinion in this case was reported in the May 12, 2006 issue of the New York Law Journal in its "Decisions of Interest" section. Read the entire Opinion Here.
• Successfully bringing suit in the Southern District of New York seeking damages for a breach of an international film distribution agreement. At the eve of trial, defendant agreed to settle this matter and paid the sums due under the agreement plus an amount used to cover a portion of client’s attorneys fees,

Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

The Firm has successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in multimillion dollar commercial litigations in federal and state courts, as well as in complex commercial arbitration. Our clients have included textile manufacturing firms, media companies involved in international film licensing and distribution, public relations firms, companies involved in the telecommunications industry, a variety of other fields. The firm's goal is to provide cost-effective, sophisticated, and zealous representation, focusing on client-oriented results rather than unnecessary litigation.

Electronic Commerce, Internet and New Media Law

Over the past decade, the Internet has become a massive marketplace where billions of dollars in transactions are carried out between buyers and sellers who never see each other. Along with innovation and opportunities, however, has come a host of new risks and threats. Mr. Karcioglu has provided legal counsel to clients in this since the beginning of the internet boom in the late 1990's and advises clients with respect to a variety of legal issues, ranging from domain name disputes to spamming.

The firm provides counsel to companies who market and distribute goods and services over the internet, and advises large and small clients with respect to liability issues on the internet, "click-wrap" licensing, on-line distribution, user agreements, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) computer networks, and other issues facing on-line communities. We help identify and manage the legal risks of doing business in cyberspace, whether you are a distributor, vendor, content provider or end user.

General Business Counsel

The Firm provides general legal counsel to a variety of companies, from start-ups to well-established businesses. We provide general counsel services as to corporate structure and formation, franchising and licensing opportunities. We also advise clients regarding business formation and strategic partnerships, review business plans, and assist in preparing and procuring business financing. As a JD/MBA, Mr. Karcioglu is able to understand and protect clients' business interests, as well as their legal interests.