Intellectual Property Lawyer NYC

Who We Represent

At The Fried Firm, we are experienced in working with a wide spectrum of creative individuals and businesses, from design studios, production houses, and marketing and advertising companies to musicians, authors, visual artists, and designers. Talk to The Fried Firm today to help protect your intellectual property.

Key Benefits

If you don’t have an intellectual property lawyer watching your back, you’re leaving your biggest assets open to risk. With the right lawyer in your corner, you can protect your work, stop others from using it without permission, properly license and generate revenue, and lock down your ideas, products, and designs with the right tools—like copyrights or trademarks. An IP attorney helps safeguard what’s yours so you can keep creating without limits.

Solution-Focused

The Fried Firm has helped New York businesses and creators defend their trademarks in USPTO opposition and cancellation proceedings, win copyright disputes in federal court, structure IP licensing agreements, navigate ownership questions that arise in business transactions, and enforce rights against infringers.

Our clients include recording artists protecting their publishing rights, fashion designers defending their trademarks, software companies negotiating licensing arrangements, and creative businesses working through the IP implications of partnerships, acquisitions, and employment agreements.

When your work is at stake, you need an IP attorney who understands how New York’s courts and federal IP law interact — and who has been in the room when these disputes are resolved.

Learn How an Intellectual Property Lawyer in NYC Can Help You

You pour your soul into your work, so protecting your intellectual property is paramount. Make sure your ideas and creations are locked up tight, and that you have the backing of a like-minded attorney like those at The Fried Firm.

Trademark & Copyright Law

The team at The Fried Firm provides intellectual property protection services, including federal and state trademark registration, federal copyright registration, enforcement, and defense. We protect our clients from infringing on the intellectual property of others by researching existing and pending trademarks and copyrights and informing our clients on the best strategies for registration. If we see a potential pitfall, we inform our clients and immediately work with them on a potential solution.

We administer the licensing, assignment, and transfer (if necessary) of intellectual properties. When a client’s IP is threatened, we build a strong defense for them, including issuing cease and desist letters and filing copyright or trademark infringement lawsuits.

Protecting IP in New York: The Federal and State Framework

Many of the most significant intellectual property disputes in the United States are litigated in the Southern District of New York, one of the country’s most active and sophisticated federal courts for copyright, trademark, and trade secret matters. If a rights dispute reaches federal litigation, there is a strong likelihood that it will be decided by SDNY judges who have developed deep expertise in entertainment, media, and intellectual property law over decades.

New York also provides additional protections that go beyond the federal framework:

• New York Right of Publicity: New York’s Civil Rights Law (Sections 50 and 51) protects against the unauthorized commercial use of a living person’s name, portrait, picture, or voice.
• Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA): VARA provides certain moral rights for original works of visual art, including the right of attribution and the right to prevent destruction or modification of qualifying works.
• New York Trade Secret Law: New York courts apply common law trade secret protections and the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act to protect confidential business information and proprietary creative processes.
• AI and Emerging IP Issues: New York creators and businesses are increasingly dealing with questions about AI-generated content, training data, ownership of AI-assisted works, and unauthorized use of creators’ styles and likenesses. The legal framework is evolving rapidly, and we stay current on these developments as they affect our clients.

Internet Law

The team at The Fried Firm focuses on the following aspects of internet law:

• Intellectual Property Licensing and Assignments – We structure agreements to protect and commercialize your intellectual property.
• Privacy Law – We make sure that the collection and usage of your data comply with privacy regulations to minimize risk.
• Cybersecurity – We draft contracts and policies to protect your sensitive data from breaches and other cyber threats.
• Protecting IP – We protect your intellectual property rights against unauthorized use or infringement.
• Compliance with International GDPR Rules – We make sure you’re following data protection laws to prevent fines and other legal headaches.
• International Trademark: Madrid Protocol – We simplify global trademark protection with a unified registration system.

Intellectual Property Lawyer: FAQs

Here are some of the questions we commonly receive from those who are looking to hire an intellectual property lawyer in NYC. If you don’t see your question answered here, feel free to give us a call to schedule a consultation.

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How Do I Protect My Copyright?

To help protect your copyright, you’ll want to keep detailed records of the development of your work in case it comes into question and keep your private ideas secret. It may sound easy, but conflicts can arise in ways that can be hard for you to address on your own. A qualified intellectual property attorney can handle the disputes and resolutions for you.

What Do I Do if I Am Being Accused of Violating a Copyright?

The first thing you should do is call us. That’s the best first step in getting the protection you need. We’ll sit down with you and discuss what happened, determine whether you have violated an intellectual property law, and work with you and the opposing party to come to an agreeable and fair solution.

If your case needs to go to trial, we’ll have your back. We’ll present a solid defense in court and handle every detail of the trial process for you.

If I Create Something at Work, Does My Employer Own My Copyright?

Not necessarily. You must have a written agreement between you and your employer that assigns the copyright to them. An attorney can work with you on drafting up that agreement.

What is the Southern District of New York, and why does it matter for IP?

The Southern District of New York (SDNY), based in Manhattan, is a federal district court with one of the most active dockets for copyright, trademark, and entertainment IP cases in the country. Major music industry disputes, landmark publishing cases, and high-profile trademark matters regularly proceed through SDNY. Its judges have developed deep expertise in intellectual property law over decades of handling these cases. If you are in a federal IP dispute as a New York creator or business, SDNY is likely where your case will be heard, and having a New York IP attorney familiar with that court and its practices is an advantage.

Does New York law protect my name, likeness, or image?

Yes. New York’s Civil Rights Law (Sections 50 and 51) prohibits the use of a living person’s name, portrait, picture, or voice for advertising or trade purposes without written consent. This is known as New York’s Right of Publicity. Violations can result in an injunction stopping the use and damages, including punitive damages in some cases. This protection is particularly important for musicians, performers, athletes, public figures, and anyone whose identity has commercial value. If your name or image is being used without your permission in New York, we can help you enforce your rights.

How does AI affect copyright protection for New York creators?

Artificial intelligence raises several unsettled copyright questions that are directly relevant to New York creators and businesses. The U.S. Copyright Office has taken the position that AI-generated works without meaningful human authorship are not eligible for copyright protection, but the line between AI-assisted and AI-generated work is contested and evolving. Questions about whether training AI on copyrighted material constitutes infringement are currently being litigated in federal courts, including in New York. New York creators should document their creative process carefully, understand what rights they may be waiving when using AI tools, and consult with an IP attorney about how to protect their work in this environment. We are actively tracking these developments and advising clients on AI-related IP issues.

My New York business received a cease and desist letter. What should I do?

Do not ignore it, and do not respond without legal advice. A cease and desist letter is a formal claim that you are infringing someone’s intellectual property rights, and your response (or lack of one) can affect your legal position significantly. The right strategy depends on whether the claim has merit, whether you have any defenses (such as a license, prior use, or fair use), what the claimant’s likely next steps are, and what outcome is in your business’s best interest. At The Fried Firm, we regularly advise New York businesses on how to respond to IP claims , whether that means negotiating a resolution, pushing back on a weak claim, or restructuring your use of the material in question.