Litigation

Peter Koziol focus a substantial portion of his practice on intellectual property litigation.  Mr. Koziol is experienced lead trial counsel in matters involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights, unfair competition, antitrust and deceptive and unfair trade practices. 

Mr. Koziol's clients include plaintiffs and defendants in all aspects of intellectual property litigation and appeals in state and federal courts. Mr. Koziol also represents clients in interparte disputes at the United States Patent and trademark office in oppositions and matters before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, Patent Trial and Appeal Board (formerly the Board of Patent Appeals and Inferences). Mr. Koziol is admitted to practice before all federal and state courts in Florida, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent Applications

As a registered patent attorney, Mr. Koziol focuses a substantial part of his practice toward the application for registration of patents.  Mr. Koziol also advises clients regarding international patent applications, and other possibilities for protection such as trade secrets.

A patent is a grant of certain property rights for a limited time to an inventor of a novel invention, issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The owner of the patent may exclude others from importing, "making, using, offering for sale, or selling" the patented invention.

There are three main categories of U.S. patents utility, design and plant patents.

1. Utility patents are granted to those who invent or discover new and useful processes, machines, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter. This also includes any new and useful improvement on existing processes, machines, articles of manufacture, or compositions of matter.
2. Design patents are granted to those who invent new, original, and ornamental designs for articles of manufacture; and
3. Plant patents are granted to those who invent or discover (and asexually reproduce) any distinct and new variety of plant.

Mr. Koziol prepares utility, design and plant patent applications for clients, and is particularly experienced with inventions in the software, mechanical, amusement and aerospace arts.

Trademark Applications

Peter Koziol advises, counsels, and advocates for clients applying for trademark registrations.

A trademark is a source identifier for goods, and a servicemark is the same for services. Trademarks, servicemarks, collective marks, quality marks, and membership marks are all commonly called trademarks. Trademark law enables the owner of a mark to prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but it does not prevent others from either making or selling the same or similar goods or services under a clearly different name.

For instance a business owner may sell widgets under the name "FIZAM!." Trademark law would enable the business owner to seek damages from and prevent others from selling similar widgets under the name "FIZAM!" It also may even allow for recovery against someone selling different widgets under a similar name such as "FIZAM?," or "FISAM." However, it would not prevent others from selling widgets identical in function under a clearly different name, like for example, "BLING DING."

Trademarks may be registered in the state in which they are used, or if they are used in "interstate commerce" they may be registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Registration creates a presumption of validity and may enable a trademark owner to enforce a greater set of rights.

Mr. Koziol is experienced registering trademarks with state, federal and foreign agencies.