Software, if it’s broken down to its essentials, is merely data and instructions that can be executed by a computer. But these data and instructions have helped grow an industry that’s now worth approximately half of a trillion dollars and growing. The industry, including small, emerging and large multinational companies alike, innovates at a breakneck pace. Haug Partners understands the importance of protecting these innovations with intellectual property.

Understanding how to navigate the intellectual property landscape in the software space could mean the difference between becoming a unicorn or joining the ever-growing list of failed companies.

Haug Partners attorneys have successfully obtained patent protection for the underlying system, method, function, and algorithmic embodiments of software. Our success is based on years of technical, industry, and legal experience.

Representative technical and industry experience includes machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, financial technology products (blockchain, cryptocurrency, trading platforms), e-commerce, enterprise systems, social networking, mobile and web applications, electronic design automation (EDA) software, cryptography, ontological networks, advertising technology, authentication technology, auditing technology, image processing, augmented and virtual reality, cloud computing technology, and medical information systems.

Our team has successfully represented clients in all aspects of patent practice for both foreign and domestic clients, including patent litigation, patent prosecution, due diligence, client counseling, and providing opinions of counsel. Our attorneys have also successfully represented numerous clients in contentious proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, including inter partes reviews, covered business method reviews, and reexaminations. Our attorneys understand the there is no one-size-fits-all patent strategy. We tailor each strategy based on the client’s immediate short-term and long-term goals.

Copyright can protect the literal (e.g., source and object code) and nonliteral (e.g., structure, sequence, and organization) elements of software. Our attorneys are fluent in many different coding languages and can decipher the structure, sequence, and organization of the software in order to devise the best copyright strategy.

Trade secret law can also be used to protect the source code of the software. Our attorneys have extensive experience developing the measures needed to obtain protection of trade secrets.

Haug Partners is ready to customize the right protection strategy for your software.