Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, & Gilchrist, P.A.

Focus and practice areas

The firm handles intellectual property alongside complex business litigation. Its patent, trademark, and copyright work covers both prosecution, the process of securing a right, and licensing, the process of letting others use it. The same firm that registers a right can also litigate it when a dispute follows.

The named areas reach past those three. The firm lists computer and internet law, entertainment law, and franchise matters, along with foreign applications for clients who file outside the United States. In my opinion, that mix reads as a practice built around ideas and the commercial disputes that grow out of them.

Each of those areas carries its own rhythm. Patent prosecution turns on technical claims and prior art. Trademark work depends on how a mark is used and whether it can be confused with another. Copyright covers original works from the moment they are fixed, and franchise law deals with the contracts that govern how a brand runs across locations.

Where the work is decided

Intellectual property matters land in more than one forum, and the firm names several. Its attorneys appear before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They also work through arbitration panels, administrative bodies, and state and federal courts.

Those forums call for different footing. Prosecution before the USPTO runs on written filings, where examiners review applications and issue office actions before the office grants a patent or registers a mark. Litigation follows a separate track, with pleadings, discovery, and a judge or jury. A firm that does both can carry a matter across that line when a competitor later challenges a registered right.

Business litigation adds a further layer, since commercial disputes often turn on contracts and conduct as much as on a single registered asset. Handling intellectual property and business litigation together lets one firm hold both threads when a case involves a brand and the deal behind it.

Enforcing and defending rights

A registered right holds its value once the owner can defend it. The firm lists intellectual property litigation among its work, which places it on both sides of that line: pressing claims for a rights holder and answering them for a party accused of infringement.

These cases often open with a demand letter and can move into federal court, where damages and injunctions are on the table. Because the same firm files the underlying applications, a client can keep prosecution and enforcement with one set of lawyers who already know the record. That continuity is one practical benefit of a firm that covers both.

How the team is built

The site names 17 attorneys and agents, each listed with a title and an office. Many hold the shareholder title, which points to a senior, partnership-weighted group. As a reviewer, I read that as a sign that experienced lawyers stay close to the files.

Several of the named attorneys are registered patent attorneys. That credential requires a technical or scientific background and admission to a separate patent bar, so it signals hands-on work with inventions and applications. The firm also describes board-certified attorneys among its ranks, a Florida Bar designation that follows years of practice and an examination in a defined area.

Named shareholders

Herbert L. Allen is listed as a retired shareholder and a registered patent attorney. Brian R. Gilchrist is the managing shareholder. Ava K. Doppelt and Christopher F. Regan appear among the shareholders, and Regan is a registered patent attorney.

The roster continues with David L. Sigalow, Richard K. Warther, John F. Woodson II, Ryan T. Santurri, Robert H. Thornburg, Jack G. Abid, David S. Carus, and Allison R. Imber, each listed as a shareholder and most registered to practice before the patent office. Those names sit within a group of 17 attorneys and agents.

Offices and reach

The firm runs three offices in Florida, in Orlando, Miami, and Winter Springs, with the main office in Orlando. A satellite location in Jacksonville extends its footprint toward the northeast of the state. That spread keeps the firm within reach of clients across several Florida business centers.

Patent and trademark filings run through a federal office open to any registered practitioner, wherever they sit. Location weighs more in litigation and local business disputes, where a nearby office can mean quicker meetings and easier access to the courts that hear a case.

What the record shows

The firm has operated since 1972, which puts more than fifty years behind the name. Its clients include individual entrepreneurs as well as national and international corporations. Work at that scale covers single trademark filings and the larger portfolios that established companies carry.

In my opinion, the combination reads as a settled intellectual property practice with long footing in central Florida. The public markers behind that are plain: a 1972 founding, a roster of shareholders and registered patent attorneys, and four Florida locations anchored in Orlando.