Business Law

Intellectual Property (IP)

1

I am licensed in Maryland, and permitted to practice intellectual property law (federal law) in the other states.

This is a "boutique" firm. I provide legal counsel to small and medium business nationwide to assure protection of all their branding (e.g. trademarks), creatives (e.g. writings, art, and photos), inventions (patentable), and proprietary information and know-how (e.g. trade secrets) and profit when licensing these out.

I assist small and medium businesses nationwide in negotiating important business deals. This can include representing them in person, assisting in the background and training staff on effective negotiation techniques. I wrote a book on negotiating called "Zen and the Art of Negotiation: Successful Negotiation for People Who Hate to Negotiate."

For Maryland small and medium businesses I act as "outside counsel," dealing with business formation, contracts and agreements, employment and many other legal problems that occur in any business. As a 'repurposed' engineer, I especially focus on tech businesses.

Finally, for all clients I offer, with no extra charge, contact by Skype™ with Video to assure both verbal and non-verbal communication.

I have practiced law—with one period of inactivity—since 1973. This specific firm dates from 2005, focusing then on the negotiation process, and later expanding to include first patent marketing and then other aspects of intellectual property.

Author of an acclaimed book entitled Zen and the Art of Negotiation: Successful Negotiation for People Who Hate to Negotiate (Silloway Press 2010), and in Spanish as Zen y el arte de negociar (Panorama Editions Group, Mexico City 2011).

(1)
A MILLION DOLLARS FOR CLIENT
Scenario: A software engineer joined a start-up company, agreeing to take stock shares instead of a large salary ($225K in all)--understanding from the owner that there would be in IPO within a few years.
But there was no IPO after almost six years. Rather than pursuing legal action, the engineer hired Marcus to solve the problem for him.
Result: The client received a check for over one-third of a million dollars. And, a company representative said that they actually increased their settlement by $40,000 over their "absolute maximum offer" as a direct result of Marcus' negotiation skills.

(2)
Scenario: An author made demand on client, another author, for over $1,000 for allegedly copying the first author's article with a registered copyright. Researching, Marcus found that the alleged infringement was too long ago to escape the statute if limitations, and that the date of publication in the registration showed it was first published after the alleged infringement. Settled for nuisance value of about 15% of the demand.

No, I manage my own office.

(301) 368-2464

As a solo, I do not have strict rules about hours. 9-5 is merely a base.

Yes

I speak some German, read and write more.

I offer a two-hour comprehensive intellectual property checkup for $300. This covers all the client business's branding material, creatives, inventions and proprietary information—what needs protecting and how to get that protection.

Generally, negotiation work is billed at $200/hr, while IP work, being more specialized is $250/hr. I offer 10% off hourly to NOLO-referred clients.

The first half hour, discussing the problem and what if anything I can do to assist, is without charge.

I usually require a deposit, but how much depends on the specifics of the matter to be handled.