Gearhart is a trusted resource for hundreds of companies in a variety of complex, highly competitive industries.
Our experience is your advantage.

Consumer Products

Tangible Products for Personal or Household Use

The term consumer products encompasses a wide variety of products, and many new consumer products come from first-time individual inventors and small enterprises. Our clients include entrepreneurs and inventors with innovations from new food products to inventions for the construction industry and everything in between. Some of the best companies in the world started with a good idea and the passion to act on a dream, including established businesses in New York and New Jersey. Even if you’re not sure what to do with your idea, we understand that it may be your gateway to financial freedom and self-fulfillment. Our attorneys will work with you through all the steps necessary to protect your idea. We can also help connect you with prototype designers, marketing experts, infomercial promoters and manufacturers. We embrace the entrepreneurial spirit and cherish the opportunity to work with fellow explorers, regardless of size.

Medical & Life Sciences

Biotechnology pharmaceuticals medical software

We have earned a reputation as a leader in providing comprehensive solutions for life science companies. Our team’s extensive experience in the field is truly unique. Collectively, our team has advanced degrees in life sciences, has published extensively and has demonstrated deep understanding of cutting-edge technology.  Our team members also have in-depth R&D experience working for chemical, life sciences and pharmaceutical firms.

We go beyond protecting the intellectual property (IP) of pharma and biotech companies and partner with our clients to advise them during the venture capital phase and help them achieve long-term sustainable growth.


Software

Inventions Implemented in Software, business methods and the Internet of Things

Software-implemented inventions can be challenging to patent, not least because the law in this area is continually being re-interpreted. We keep abreast of the legal changes in the courts and the repercussions in the patent world. Because we chase after these details, we can describe your invention in ways that meet the very latest standards for patentability.

Also, our practitioners work expertly with complex computer systems. This helps us dig into the nuances of your invention to find the patentable gems. We then structure patent specifications and claims so they clearly show the steps in your method, specifically devised and adapted to carry out a process in an unconventional way. We also make clear, whenever possible, the original aspects of your invention.

Medical Devices

Instruments for PHYSICIANs AND HEALTH science PROFESSIONALs

Patents covering medical devices span from simple bandages to replacement heart valves and even surgical robots. To be successful in this competitive and lucrative field, individual inventors or companies need to be cognizant of the challenges of filing patent applications in the U.S. and abroad.

The key for medical device companies is not only receiving a high quality patent, but also having that patent provide high quality commercialization opportunities. The patent office greatly desires that inventors seek very narrow claim coverage. Strong legal representation ensures commercialization opportunities for the widest possible breadth of claim coverage.

We have a wealth of experience in obtaining meaningful patent rights, both foreign and domestic, for inventors, universities and companies of all sizes in the medical device space. We have helped clients win industry awards and can provide the expertise to enable you to become the next award winner in the medical device area.

Design Patents

Design is the ultimate differentiator

In today’s marketplace, design often helps differentiate a product more than functionality. Design patent protection provides coverage for the aesthetic details that distinguish a product in a meaningful way, rather than the underlying functionality itself (which is what the utility patent covers). Common subject matter for design patents includes, but is not limited to, furniture, household appliances, computer icons and interfaces, vehicles, toys, medical equipment, jewelry and even food items.

Design patents have a number of advantages, including a low overall cost, a high rate of success and adding diversity (value) to your patent portfolio. Keep in mind the drawings required for this type of application are highly technical. In some instances, a simple error in the drawings is not correctable and will prove fatal to one’s effort in receiving a patent. Gearhart Law will guide you in the design patent process to ensure a smooth and profitable design patent experience.

Many of the steps are the same for a design patent as for a utility patent, but with shorter time frames.  Design patent protection only lasts 15 years from the issue date as opposed to 20 years for the utility patent. Additionally, design patents don’t have a provisional option but design patent applications are not as often initially rejected by the USPTO as are utility applications.

Non-US filings for design patents
An inventor has 6 months from the application filing to decide which countries to file in and once filed, the process in most countries will be similar to that of the US, with each country having its own procedures.

INTERNET OF THINGS

DIGITAL, TECHNOLOGY AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the term for everyday objects that are embedded with software enabling them to have network connectivity and exchange data. If you have a coffee pot, thermostat, security system that you turn on with an app on your phone, then you’re using IoT. Analysts predict that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. Gearhart Law is uniquely positioned to function at a high level in the growing IP space of IoT.

We have been at the forefront of this emerging field and have expertise in drafting patent applications for mechanical systems and devices, patent applications for software and internet technologies, and in the intersection of these technologies. In fact, we have drafted patent applications for mechanical devices, including biomedical devices that are controlled wirelessly and by apps for many years. Our expertise in this area goes back to before the term was in wide use and our experts are well versed in securing proper patents and trademarks for entrepreneurs and small companies alike.

Energy

Energy and Green Inventions

While you innovate, we’ll help you protect your intellectual property with our expertise in patent law for energy. Our team has written a multitude of patents in the energy field, such as vehicle fuel additives for improved gas mileage performance, as well as a new device to harvest wind energy. Our expertise also includes working with companies that harvest, maximize, transport, store or improve production usage for various types of energy. From chemicals to green technology devices, from machines to methods, our patent attorneys can provide a patent for any area of energy technology.

Plants

Protection and utility patents for new varieties of plants

Plant patents are granted to inventors who invent or discover an asexually reproduced, distinct and new variety of plant in a cultivated area, other than a tuber-propagated plant or a plant found in an uncultivated state. Plants include living plant organisms, sprouts, mutants, seedlings, hybrids, algae and micro fungi. Protection in the U.S. lasts 20 years from the filing date and bestows the right to exclude others from asexually reproducing, selling or using the plant.

To be patentable, the plant must have at least one distinguishing characteristic and cannot have been sold, released, described in a publication or offered for sale in the U.S. more than one year prior to the date of the application. Your plant can also achieve utility patent protection if the application meets traditional patentability requirements.

At Gearhart Law, we have extensive experience with plant patents, plant variety protection, utility patents for genetically modified plants and can also help in the contractual protection of plant seeds. We help breeders secure exclusive control over new, distinct, uniform and stable, sexually reproduced or tuber-propagated plant varieties.

Since the United States is a signatory to the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization treaty, Gearhart Law can work with foreign associates in other jurisdictions to secure your international plant rights under the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, an international treaty governing plant breeders’ rights.