Succeeding in the toy and game industry isn’t just about coming up with winning product ideas. As top toy and game manufacturers know, launching a new product and building and managing a successful company involve a whole host of complex business and legal challenges.
Securing the patents, trademarks, and copyrights you need, and ensuring that your company’s intellectual property is fully protected, is a definite priority. Beyond that, toy and game businesses also have to comply with a wide range of legal and regulatory issues, covering everything from product liability to children’s advertising and privacy protection.
At Venable, our attorneys understand the issues you are facing. We offer the depth and breadth of experience and know-how required to help you navigate the full range of legal and regulatory challenges. Our toy and game practice includes some of the most sophisticated attorneys focusing on intellectual property, advertising, regulatory compliance, and consumer product safety issues. Whether you need assistance procuring new patents or trademarks, setting up a licensing deal, or taking on counterfeiters, we’re ready and able to help. Likewise, the attorneys in our advertising, privacy and data protection, and regulatory groups are widely regarded as among the top practitioners in their fields. Our attorneys have deep connections at the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We also have a strong track record defending product liability and consumer class action matters.
In short, we cover all the bases in the array of legal services we provide. We’re committed to getting the job done as cost-effectively as possible. We not only offer one-stop shopping, and fully integrated solutions to the problems and challenges our clients face – we deliver superior value too.
Intellectual Property: Protecting Your Most Valuable Asset
Our intellectual property group comprises more than 50 lawyers, including patent, trademark, and copyright practitioners, as well as many of the firm’s most skilled trial lawyers. In all, we have more than 30 registered patent attorneys, many of whom have Ph.D.s or other advanced degrees.
As for our effectiveness, our patent prosecutors routinely score a patent allowance rate approximately 25% percent higher than the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office average, and our trademark practice was recently ranked in the top 10 for trademark filings by Intellectual Property Today.
Our litigation team, for its part, has a proven record of winning high-stakes intellectual property cases, as well as major settlements for clients. We have argued successfully before the Supreme Court, including a landmark copyright case that Legal Times described as “the most import trade dress matter litigated since 1998.”
The clients we represent include inventors, start-ups, and Fortune 100 companies. With every type of matter we take on, our attorneys take the time to understand our clients’ broader business objectives, and work closely with clients to help them meet their goals.
Our capabilities include
- Professional advice and guidance through every stage of product development
- Preparing and prosecuting patent, trademark, and copyright applications
- Reviewing and negotiating license agreements
- Enforcement actions against counterfeiters
- Litigation of patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secrets cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants
Professional Advice on Advertising and Marketing
For companies that manufacture children’s toys and games, reaching the kids’ market is essential. But it’s often difficult to navigate federal and state advertising regulations, and to figure out precisely what the rules governing advertising and marketing aimed at children do and do not allow.
Like our privacy and data security lawyers, the attorneys in our advertising and marketing group are leaders in their field. They’re also proficient in compliance, and will provide the guidance you need to ensure that your company’s marketing and ad campaigns don’t run afoul of government regulators, or of ad industry-promulgated rules set by the Children’s Advertising Review Unit.
If regulators do raise objections to your ads or marketing, we can help on that front too. Our lawyers have a strong track record of helping clients defend and quickly resolve advertising-related complaints and regulatory enforcement actions brought by the FTC. We are equally adept at fending off lawsuits brought by rival companies attacking our clients’ products or ads.
Professional Advice on Privacy and Data Security Issues
Venable’s lawyers know how high the stakes are for toy and game manufacturers when it comes to consumer privacy and data security.
Over the years, our attorneys have successfully defended dozens of clients against privacy-related enforcement actions by state and federal regulators, and against class action suits stemming from data security breaches.
We’re widely recognized as one of the premiere practice groups in privacy and data security-related litigation. Our guiding philosophy has always been that it’s far better to head off trouble before it occurs. We’re also experienced at advising companies on compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and other privacy-related federal and state regulations.
As part of that process, we conduct thorough privacy reviews and data security audits to help clients mitigate risk. Should a breach happen, however, we’ll also work with you to navigate the fall-out, and help you mount the strongest defense possible against any resulting civil litigation or enforcement actions by the FTC or other government agencies.
Mitigating Product Safety and Product Liability Risk
No toy or game manufacturer likes to consider the possibility that a product of theirs might be recalled because it’s unsafe. But should that sort of scenario ever happen, the attorneys in Venable’s government and regulatory group have the knowledge and hands-on experience required to help clients facing product safety issues manage and mitigate the damage.
Many of our attorneys have previously worked inside federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product and Safety Commission. They have a keen understanding of how regulators think and work and of how to help clients resolve product safety issues and recalls as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Likewise, the attorneys in our litigation group have represented dozens of clients in product liability-related class actions, so they can help you to minimize the liability risks your company might be facing with the strongest possible defense in any post-recall civil litigation.
The Best of Both Worlds
At Venable, we’ve worked hard to build a depth of knowledge and experience that few large law firms can match, and a range of skills and services that is impossible to find at a boutique firm.
In other words, we offer clients the best of both worlds. No matter what type of issue your company is facing, you can count on Venable to provide superior legal representation and client service—and all at a fair and reasonable rate.