Intellectual Property Law in Texas.
Welcome to Texas IP Law, an informational publication about intellectual property in Texas. Browse the topics for an overview of patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, read the guides for fuller explanations, or search the site when a specific question comes up.
IP topics.
-
Patents
Patentability, prosecution at the USPTO, portfolio strategy, licensing, and litigation.
-
Trademarks
Choosing, clearing, registering, and enforcing names and logos.
-
Copyrights
Ownership, registration, licensing, and enforcement for creative work and software.
-
Trade Secrets
Protecting confidential formulas, processes, and know-how under Texas and federal law.
-
Transactions and Licensing
Licenses, assignments, joint development, and IP due diligence in deals.
-
IP Litigation
Patent, trademark, copyright and trade-secret disputes in Texas state and federal courts, and relevant administrative proceedings.
Guides
Guides.
Explanations of the fundamentals for founders, executives, engineers, and creators.
-
Four Types of Intellectual Property
What patents, trademarks, copyright and trade secrets protect, how they differ and why one product can involve all four.
-
Receiving an IP Demand Letter
What typically happens when a letter accuses a business of infringing a patent, trademark, copyright, or trade secret, and the options for responding.
-
Patent, Trade Secret, or Both?
How to choose between patenting an invention and keeping it as a trade secret, or using both.
-
Registering and Maintaining a Trademark
The main steps from a federal trademark application to registration, continued use and maintenance filings.
-
Copyright Registration, Fair Use, and Online Takedowns
How registration affects enforcement, what fair use asks and how copyright takedown notices and counter-notices work.
-
IP Licenses and Assignments
How ownership transfers differ from permission to use intellectual property, and the terms that define a licensing arrangement.
Insights.
-
The Waco Patent Docket After Judge Albright
Judge Alan Albright has left the Western District of Texas. What his departure means for patent cases in Waco and across Texas.
-
SB 1318 After One Year: Health-Care Noncompetes and Trade Secrets
Texas limits certain health-care noncompetes entered into or renewed on or after September 1, 2025. The changes affect duration, geographic scope and buyouts, while trade-secret and confidentiality protections remain separate.
-
AI-Assisted Inventions and the USPTO's Inventorship Guidance
The USPTO applies the same conception standard to AI-assisted inventions as to any other invention. What the November 2025 guidance changed.
One Product, Four Rights.
A single product can involve several kinds of intellectual property. A sensor may contain a patentable invention, carry a distinctive brand, include copyrighted software and rely on a confidential calibration process. Each right protects a different part of the product, and the owner of one right may not own the others.