PRACTICE AREAS (detailed)

TECHNOLOGY

The extended strength of the technology sector has ensured California’s dominant position in the U.S. economy and continues to contribute enormously to global recovery and growth. New technologies and new media, and the convergence of technology and media, are of increasing importance at Neff Law Firm.

In the technology area, Neff Law Firm operates a Silicon Valley-type practice. We represent a number of important software, ecommerce and technology companies, the majority in Northern and Southern California, but quite a few out-of-state and even overseas, for which we undertake a wide variety of licensing and other transactions.

We also provide niche specialty counsel in international transactions for technology and other companies.
In the new media sector, we have been at the forefront of designing licenses for novel content distribution methods. We are an ideal choice as strategic counselors to navigate the juncture of technology and content.

We also represent numerous Internet companies, as well as the Internet businesses of media and brick-and-mortar companies. We handle the array of matters that Internet companies generally require, from advertising agreements to content licenses, terms and conditions of use, and privacy policies.

We prepare and negotiate a broad variety of technology and Internet agreements including OEM, VAR, distribution, reseller and development agreements, and web development agreements. For some companies, we prepare their template agreements, and they negotiate them with prospects. For other companies, we handle the legal aspects of those negotiations.

In addition, our Firm maintains an active practice in eCommerce, Internet and web development deals for a wide variety of clients.

INTERNATIONAL

As the Internet has leveled the earth and blurred international borders, our unique knowledge of international issues, including international tax issues, has helped our clients take advantage of the instant international presence that the Internet permits. Moreover, we are also able to assist our clients in Spanish, French and Portuguese.
The international legal experience of Neff Law Firm cuts across our principal practice areas intellectual property, technology, ecommerce and media, and includes wide experience in commercial issues and channel distribution overseas, reseller agreements, employment issues and tax issues.

We handle complex inbound and outbound transactions for business entities, entertainment companies and high net worth individuals.

We counsel U.S. companies conducting business overseas, or producing movies in foreign locations. We also represent foreign companies investing in U.S. media and other business assets. In these areas, we often advise on all business and tax structuring, sometimes bringing in additional legal and accounting expertise as necessary.

We provide clients with a comprehensive range of talent and representation. Areas of experience include cross-border tax and business structuring and intellectual property. We regularly provide international counsel on anti-piracy programs for business software, entertainment software and book publishing. Richard Neff has managed copyright and trademark enforcement anti-piracy programs overseas for the Business Software Alliance, as well as similar programs for the Association of American Publishers and for major software and games publishers (e.g., for Bentley Systems, and for IDSA, the forerunner of the Entertainment Software Association). He also has worked on reforms of many of the world’s copyright laws, and language he has drafted appears in three Latin American copyright and software laws.

Additionally, we conduct overseas deals and licensing transactions for a variety of technology companies. We handle many international trademark registrations and manage international trademark portfolios for leaders in the entertainment industry. Among the languages we speak and conduct business in are Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Our clients enjoy the benefits of global representation but without the potentially exorbitant associated expense. Working across borders, time zones and international matters of law, we counsel clients wherever their legal needs arise.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Intellectual property (“IP”) is the heart of the post-industrial and entertainment-oriented economy centered in Southern California, and of the business of the large percentage of our clients based in and around Silicon Valley. We operate at the nexus of innovation, culture and technology. We provide clients with the depth of skills and experience necessary to meet all their intellectual property protection needs.

In all areas of our IP counseling, we represent clients in transactional-based IP matters, copyright, trademark and domain name counseling. We focus on the protection, commercialization and enforcement of valuable intellectual property assets. We protect copyrights, trademarks, and rights of publicity, and safeguard other rights from appropriation, infringement or misuse.
On the transactional side, we help commercialize the creativity of the media and technology industries. Many of our practice achievements are located at the dynamic convergence of technology, media, entertainment and branding, as our representative matters illustrate.

COPYRIGHT

We have handled disputes relating to technology and internet infringement piracy. Richard Neff was a founder of the Business Software Alliance, establishing many of its Asian and Latin American antipiracy programs. For 15 years he spearheaded the antipiracy cause in Latin America, achieving reform of most national copyright laws (which now protect software under copyright law, and many give the copyright owner a distribution right), while managing the antipiracy litigation programs for the major software publishers, including Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk, Symantec and sometimes Apple, Novell and others.

In recent years he has counseled studios, publishers and authors about fair use, and copyright and publicity rights do’s and don’ts when making films and videos, etc.

ECOMMERCE

Before Hollywood moved to the Internet in a significant way, our Firm’s lawyers were handling novel eCommerce issues and transactions for a variety of technology and Internet companies. For example, our lawyers created the contractual backbone for one of the world’s leading Internet shopping/price comparison websites.

Now that the content and Internet sectors are merging, we are at the forefront of legal aspects of content distribution on the web, as well as the litigation issues that arise in the ecommerce arena.

TRADEMARK

We counsel clients on the selection and clearance of trademarks, as well as their use, registration and license.
We also protect domain names, and have recovered some of the most famous domain names from cyber-squatters. In addition, we work closely with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to interdict counterfeit products at the point of entry into the country.