Tara J. Williams

Patent Infringement Attorney

Patent Attorney

Protect Your Intellectual Property Rights

I have seen many inventors and entrepreneurs make tremendous personal and financial sacrifices to pursue their dreams of commercializing an invention. It takes an enormous financial commitment. If you have obtained a patent, you may already know of the costs related to obtaining and protecting patent rights, as well as to commercialize an invention. Further, the costs involved in asserting a patent against a potential infringer are often prohibitive.

If an infringer is permitted to practice the patent without paying a licensing fee, and the patentee cannot afford to pursue the infringer, the economic value of the patent is compromised. Often the financial position of the infringer staggers that of the inventor, and finances prohibit the inventor from doing anything. Not only is that result a tragedy for inventors, it has consequential impact on the nation’s economic growth and entrepreneurial development.

I am committed to changing that balance in economic power. I seek to offer a solution for such inventors and entrepreneurs that can help them secure the help of a qualified patent attorney. I have had many years’ experience as an intellectual property lawyer and understand the issues involved in obtaining and protecting intellectual property rights, many of which are complex.

I have also had the wonderful opportunity to represent many clients in obtaining recovery for their injuries on a contingency fee basis. The clients are often the victims of over-reaching, and have no funds to pay for attorney representation. We receive a fee only if the client recovers. This model can also be applied to some patent infringement matters, although few patent infringement attorneys adopt this model.

Professional Experience and Background

Tara 1 I have been in practice for approximately seventeen years. My law career began after graduating from the University of North Carolina School of Law, when I focused my practice in intellectual property law, advising clients about issues related to patents, trademarks and copyrights. I have had the opportunity to work in many different environments with many different challenges. I have worked as an attorney in private practice, as a corporate patent lawyer with a national chemical company, as well as in-house counsel for a start-up internet company. I have advised clients in many different technologies and on a multitude of intellectual property rights matters, including:

preparing patent and trademark applications;
prosecuting patent and trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office;
conducting patent availability searches;
preparing patent infringement opinions;
preparing intellectual property licensing agreements;
conducting patent valuations;
evaluating patent infringement cases; and
assisting and advising about potential patent remedies.

Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights for Individual Inventors and Small Companies

Tara 2 Many of my clients were individual inventors. They were not employed to invent, but often worked in other jobs while they pursued intellectual property protection for their ideas and designs. They often had questions related to protecting their rights, asserting their rights, and other intellectual property issues. These clients did not have substantial corporate resources to fund their pursuits. Often they were investing the sum of their savings.

Still other clients were start-up companies founded on one patented invention, either trying to enter the market with their invention, facing intellectual property lawsuits, trying to stop patent infringement, or other intellectual property theft. Even with their diverse backgrounds, they all had one need in common: to protect their ideas from misappropriation by others, in many cases it was misappropriation by entities having greater economic strength than they.

I discovered that many clients were unable to get the representation they needed to protect their intellectual property rights because they did not have the necessary funds to hire a qualified intellectual property lawyer. Getting an issued patent or trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is an expensive endeavor. Asserting those rights against a potential infringer is in many cases prohibitively expensive.

Traditionally lawyers, and patent law firms in particular, bill for their services on an hourly basis. Many deserving clients are simply unable to afford the high hourly rates of most intellectual property lawyers. The issue is not unique to patent lawyers; it is often true for clients needing a family law attorney, an estate attorney or a criminal attorney. However, there are sometimes other avenues for those types of clients needing representation for their personal legal issues. Unfortunately, that has not traditionally been the case for clients seeking to protect primarily “economic” rights, i.e., patent, trademark or copyrights.

Personal Experience

My career has its foundation in many life opportunities that have given me a breadth and depth of experiences. I have had the opportunity to live and travel in many different locations, including in this country in Alabama, Texas, Missouri, Michigan and Delaware, and in other countries, such as Uganda, Germany and Finland. I learned about and met many different people from different cultures, with vastly different lifestyles and backgrounds. Through these experiences, I developed a strong appreciation for the differences in people and their own backgrounds, and developed a heightened sensitivity to the dignity to which each individual is entitled.

This exposure to different cultures developed in me an interest in the arts, creative works and in creative thinking. My interests initially led me to pursue a liberal arts degree from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, concentrating in Religion and Philosophy. Seeking to incorporate my interest in science, I sought a degree in chemistry with the intention of pursuing a career in art conservation and historical preservation. I transferred to Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama and obtained my Bachelors of Science degree in Chemistry. The idea of using technology to preserve and protect artistic creations and historic artifacts intrigued me. I ultimately pursued a career in the legal field where I could assist individuals in protecting their intellectual and creative pursuits.

Contingency Based Patent Law Firm

Tara 3 I have been with the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin for five years. In this time, I focused my practice more directly on individual client counseling, including counseling clients about their personal claims, and representing their interests in front of large companies, and other attorneys, in a way that many could not for themselves.

In my present practice as a patent lawyer, I have come to appreciate that many of my clients simply do not have the financial resources to pay legal fees through traditional by-the-hour means. My clients presently enjoy a contingency fee arrangement that allows them access to quality legal services without the burden of mounting legal fees. The firm collects a legal fee only when there is recovery on the client’s behalf. I believe this model is equally appropriate in some patent matters and offer representation on that basis.