Specializing in patents, trademarks, copyrights, computer law, trade secrets, unfair competition, licensing and related litigation matters.

At Brian D. Smith, P.C, our practice is limited to patent, trademark, software, copyright, computer, unfair competition law, licensing and other intellectual property (IP) matters with an emphasis on trademark, copyright and patent litigation.

	Brian Smith is the proud recipient of Martindale-Hubbell's coveted AV Peer Review Rating, the highest level of professional excellence.

Centrally located in Denver, Colorado, the firm represents clients all across the USA as well as around the world, successfully litigating and negotiating multi-million dollar settlements of patent infringement actions both before and after trial and against both U.S. and foreign corporations.

Whether your case is large or small, we can help you. Sharing offices with Hall & Evans, a major Rocky Mountain law firm providing litigation support and counsel as needed, we are able to handle any intellectual property matter that comes in the door. For example, we recently obtained a multi-million dollar judgement in a patent infringement/unfair competition case involving, believe it or not, “vampire fangs.” You can read more about the case in a Rocky Mountain News article.

How do we do it? Well, Brian Smith, firm president, is a registered patent attorney who in addition to litigating patent and trademark matters also prosecutes patent and trademark applications. Therefore, when you're talking to Brian about an infringement matter you're talking to a litigator who has a thorough understanding of patent, trademark and copyright law. You’ll receive immediate answers to your questions—not a legal brief weeks later with the inflated fees you’d get elsewhere.

The firm also prepares, files and prosecutes patent and trademark applications. Here again, Brian’s extensive litigation experience proves invaluable because it enables Brian and other firm attorneys to write patents that can stand up in court. Brian knows first hand why some patents fail in court and others succeed.

For example, patents often fail in court simply because the claims of the patent are too narrow to cover the infringing product. To prevent this from happening, every word in a patent application and its claims must be scrutinized before the patent application is filed to make sure that the invention’s scope is not limited. At the same time, the claims must be written narrowly enough to avoid the prior art (earlier patents, publications and commercialized inventions). This is a delicate balancing act which is highly time consuming but it’s something that must be done if the patent is to succeed in court.

Brian has written patents that have withstood the rigors of litigation. Brian wrote U.S. Patent No 5,319,702 which is owned by T-Netix, now Securus Technologies, which has probably been litigated more than any other patent involving Colorado inventors. The patent covers a process for detecting unauthorized phone calls and has been enforced against companies such as BellSouth, Global TelLink and others and has generated millions of dollars in settlements and licensing royalties. You can read articles about this patent and some of the settlements involving this patent in the Denver Business Journal and Business Wire.

The need to obtain strong patents is more important now than ever in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in KSR v. Teleflex, which modified the legal standard for obtaining patents. Now, both the patent office and the courts are required to consider the concept of common sense in deciding whether or not an invention is patentable; i.e. is the invention the product of ordinary skill and common sense or is it true innovation? Read this blog on the Supreme Court decision. As noted by at least one commentator, the story behind the invention now becomes important and patent attorneys who can tell the "invention story" will be in demand.

Let us tell your invention story. We have written patents in virtually all areas of technology including the medical field, telecommunications, electronics, computers, materials science, alloys, material processing, security field, toys, baby products and you guessed it, vampire fangs. Brian personally reviews every application that’s written by the firm before it’s filed in the patent office. See our Patents Overview page for more information on patents written by Brian D. Smith, P.C.

Brian is also available as a consultant and testifying expert witness to assist other attorneys with their patent and trademark matters. Contingent fee (contingency) representation and other types of affordable structured fee arrangements may be available depending on the case.

For more information, please contact us today or call 303-523-0900. We are at your service.