The Farrell Law Firm, P.C.

Focus and practice areas

Intellectual property is the whole of what this firm does. It works on patents, trademarks and copyrights, and it puts particular weight on patent prosecution, the work of drafting applications and moving them through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The firm also handles intellectual property litigation, trade secret enforcement and licensing agreements. That combination lets one office cover both the paperwork that creates a right and the disputes that follow when the right is challenged.

Intellectual property law sorts into a few distinct tracks, and each protects a different kind of asset. Patents cover inventions and how they work. Trademarks cover the names and logos that identify a product. Copyright protects original creative and written material. In my opinion, keeping these under one roof suits the way products actually reach the market, since a single device can carry a patented mechanism, a branded name and copyrighted software at once.

Inside the patent practice

Patent prosecution is the firm's stated emphasis, and it is a demanding, deadline-driven process. An application has to describe an invention in full and set out claims that mark the boundaries of what is protected. A patent examiner then reviews those claims against earlier inventions, and the applicant's attorney answers with argument or amended claims. The exchange can run for years before a patent issues. Timing matters throughout, since the first inventor to file generally holds priority, and an early application can secure a place in line while a fuller filing is prepared.

The firm's attorneys are registered to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. That registration is its own credential: it calls for a technical or scientific background and a separate patent bar examination, on top of a law license. That mix of law and science is what patent prosecution runs on, and it is what allows a lawyer to prepare and argue applications directly with the office.

The range of technology the firm names is broad. Its patent work covers wireless telecommunications, medical devices, image processing, cameras, antennas and wireless charging. It reaches further into electrical power transmission, transit systems, lighting devices, home appliances and electronic control systems. Handling that many fields calls for attorneys who can read across electronics and mechanical engineering, because each claim has to be defended in the technical terms of its own technology.

Trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets

Beyond patents, the firm protects the other forms intellectual property takes. Trademark work generally starts with a clearance search to check that a name or logo is free to use. An application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office follows, and once a mark is granted, periodic filings keep the registration alive. The firm carries this brand-side work alongside its patent practice.

Copyright protects original works such as writing, software code, images and other creative material, and registration with the U.S. Copyright Office strengthens an owner's position if the work is copied. Trade secret enforcement covers a different kind of asset: confidential business information that holds value because it stays private. Enforcing it usually means acting on confidentiality agreements and pursuing anyone who takes or reveals the information without permission. The firm lists both among the matters it handles. A dispute in either area can move into litigation, which ties this work to the firm's courtroom practice.

Litigation and licensing

Owning an intellectual property right is one thing, and enforcing or trading on it is another. The firm works on both. Intellectual property litigation plays out in federal court and moves through pleadings, discovery, expert reports and, in the cases that reach it, trial. Patent trials in particular turn on close reading of the claims and the technology behind them, which ties courtroom work back to the same skills the prosecution practice relies on. The same courts hear trademark and copyright disputes, so the litigation side of the firm draws on the full range of its practice areas.

Licensing runs alongside that enforcement work. A licensing agreement lets an owner grant others the right to use a patent, trademark or copyrighted work on agreed terms, which can turn an idea into a source of revenue without selling the underlying right. The firm drafts and counsels on these agreements as part of its practice.

How the team is built

The site lists eight attorneys in defined roles. Paul J. Farrell, who founded the firm in 2006, is the managing partner. Wendy A. Greenseich and Douglas M. Owens III are the other two partners.

Three attorneys work of counsel: Robert W. Griffith, Robert D. Morelli and Ryan C. Carter. Of counsel usually marks a senior lawyer tied to a firm without the full duties of partnership, often brought in for particular matters or for long experience in a field. Eric B. Masure practices as an attorney with the firm, and Aaron R. Gerger is an associate, the more junior role on the roster.

That shape, three partners with of counsel support and two further attorneys, is a common one for a focused firm. As a reviewer, I read it as a firm organized around a settled group of partners, with added experience available as the caseload calls for it.

Clients, reach and setting

The firm's clients vary widely in size. It counts Fortune Global 50 and Fortune 500 companies, privately held businesses, academic institutions and individual inventors among those it represents. Work for a large corporation and work for a lone inventor call for different handling. A corporate portfolio can mean many filings and a coordinated strategy, while a single inventor may bring one idea and need plain guidance on protecting it. Individual inventors often reach a firm at the earliest stage, when an idea needs a first filing and a clear read on what can be protected. Academic institutions add another pattern, since universities patent faculty research and then license it to companies that can develop it.

The firm's reach runs past the United States. It counsels clients on matters in other countries and works through relationships with foreign associates who handle filings in their own jurisdictions. Its office is in Melville, on Long Island within the New York metropolitan area, which puts it near both the regional business base and the New York City market. The firm has practiced under the same name and the same intellectual property focus since 2006.