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Welcome New Partner

June 2010 Stone, Duncan & Associates is pleased to announce the addition of Brian Linsenbach as a Partner to our team of attorneys. He is an expert in all areas of Real Estate Law, Commercial Development, Municipal and Zoning Law, and Title Insurance.

Additional Location

September 2009
Stone, Duncan & Associates, PC is pleased to announce that we now have an office in Harrisburg, PA, where we can meet with clients who desire not to travel to the West Shore.

Firm Name Change

September 2009
The name of the firm has officially changed from the "Law Offices of Duane P. Stone, PC" to "Stone, Duncan & Associates, PC." The new website and other exciting changes will be rolled out over the next four months.

Articles

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

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Trademarks as a System of Signs

Meghann Garrett:
Trademarks as a System of Signs:
A Semiotic Look at Trademark Law

Abstract This essay attempts to explore trademark law and the marks themselves from a semiotic viewpoint to provide a deeper understanding to (trademark) law as a system of signs. Although the language of trademark law may suggest slightly different meanings, for the purpose of this essay “trademark” will refer to an area of law (unless otherwise indicated) and “mark” will refer to the individual sign. The first part of this essay will provide a brief overview of semiotics. Second, it will outline a general look at trademark law as set forth in the Lanham Act. The third section is a semiotic approach to provide a deeper understanding of trademark law. Finally, the essay will analyze a seminal trademark case whilst using semiotics to address legal meaning within the case. Semiotics teaches that no absolute meaning can be found. This essay, then, attempts to secure at least one particular meaning of the Qualitex case and what it means in trademark law today.

Does your Company Need an Intellectual Property Audit?

By J. Grant Moubry

While the term “Intellectual Property Audit” may sound abstract or complex, it is a term with which all business owners and executives should become familiar. A generation ago, much of a company’s assets were tangible, i.e. buildings, equipment and goods. Today however, most company’s assets are typically comprised of intangible assets. Such intangibles may include trade secrets and rights to patented articles or methods, service or trademarks, or copyrightable material. An intellectual property audit provides an assessment of these intangible assets for your company, as well as establishing or maintaining an effective strategy for the maintenance of your intellectual property and training your personnel to properly identify intellectual property issues as they arise.