An intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses hire handles four separate legal systems at once: federal patents and copyrights, federal and Utah trademark registration, and Utah trade secret law under the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Most Herriman companies need trademark and trade secret work first, because those two protect a brand and a customer list on day one.
Last updated: August 2026
Key Takeaways
- Intellectual property is not one body of law. Patents and copyrights are exclusively federal, trademarks run on parallel federal and Utah tracks, and trade secrets are governed by Utah Code Title 13 Chapter 24 plus the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act.
- Utah trademark registration through the Division of Corporations lasts five years and is renewable in five-year terms, while a federal registration runs ten years with a use declaration due between the fifth and sixth year.
- Copyright exists the moment you write the code or take the photo, but you cannot sue until the work is registered, and statutory damages and attorney fees are gone unless you registered before the infringement started.
- A Utah trade secret claim must be filed within three years of discovery, and the federal claim carries the same three-year clock.
- Every Herriman employment, contractor, and vendor agreement that touches confidential information needs the Defend Trade Secrets Act whistleblower notice, or the company forfeits exemplary damages and attorney fees against that person.
- Herriman businesses litigate IP disputes in the federal District of Utah for patent and copyright claims, and in Utah’s Third Judicial District for trade secret, contract, and state trademark claims.
What an Intellectual Property Lawyer Herriman Utah Businesses Hire Actually Does
Most people picture an intellectual property lawyer arguing a patent case in front of a jury. In practice, the work an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah owners need is closer to preventive engineering. You are building a chain of ownership from the person who created something to the company that sells it, and then you are making that chain hold up when an employee leaves, a supplier copies your product, or a buyer runs diligence on your company.
That chain breaks in predictable places. A founder writes the first version of the software before the LLC exists, so the LLC never owns the code. A designer in another state delivers a logo under an invoice that says nothing about assignment, so the designer still owns the copyright. A sales manager leaves with the customer list, and there is no confidentiality agreement and no evidence the company treated the list as secret. None of those are exotic problems. They are the ordinary failures a Herriman company runs into in its first three years, and each one is cheaper to prevent than to litigate.
Geography also shapes the work. Herriman sits in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley in Salt Lake County, which means state court claims go to the Third Judicial District, and federal claims go to the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City. That matters more than it sounds. Patent and copyright claims can only be filed in federal court under 28 U.S.C. 1338, so a dispute that looks like a simple contract fight can end up in a very different courthouse depending on how the claim is framed.
The Four Types of Intellectual Property, and Which One You Actually Have
Business owners often use “intellectual property” to describe one specific thing they are worried about. Sorting that concern into the right legal category is the first substantive step, because the protection, the cost, and the deadline are different in each one.
| Type |
What it protects |
How you get it |
How long it lasts |
Best for |
| Trademark |
Brand names, logos, slogans, and other source identifiers |
Use in commerce creates rights; registration with the USPTO or the Utah Division of Corporations strengthens them |
Indefinite, as long as you keep using it and keep filing |
Any business with a name customers recognize |
| Copyright |
Original creative expression: code, photos, video, written content, architectural drawings |
Automatic at the moment of fixation; registration is required before you can sue |
Life of the author plus 70 years, or 95 years from publication for works made for hire |
Software, media, marketing content, course material |
| Patent |
Inventions: processes, machines, compositions of matter, and ornamental designs |
Only through examination and grant by the USPTO |
20 years from filing for a utility patent, 15 years from grant for a design patent |
Physical products and novel technical processes |
| Trade secret |
Confidential information with economic value: formulas, customer lists, pricing, methods |
No filing at all; you must take reasonable steps to keep it secret |
Forever, until it stops being secret |
Anything you can keep confidential and would rather not publish |
The practical distinction that surprises people most is the last row. A trade secret costs nothing to create and lasts indefinitely, but it disappears the instant it stops being secret, and a court will ask whether you actually behaved like it was secret. That is why an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah companies work with usually starts with confidentiality infrastructure rather than filings. Our broader complete IP protection guide walks through the same four categories in more depth, and the intellectual property lawyer overview covers the service side.
Trademarks: The Two-Track System Every Herriman Business Faces
Utah runs its own trademark register alongside the federal one, and they do different jobs. Under the Registration and Protection of Trademarks and Service Marks Act, Utah Code Section 70-3a-102 says the state chapter is interpreted to be substantially consistent with the federal Lanham Act, and that federal constructions are persuasive authority. So the standards are similar. The geography is not.
What Utah registration gives you
A Utah registration covers use in Utah. Under Section 70-3a-305, the registration expires five years after the Division of Corporations certifies it, and it renews in five-year terms if you file between six months before expiration and six months after. Section 70-3a-203 caps the electronic registration fee at $250 per year for a single class, with additional classes capped at $25 each. That makes Utah registration inexpensive, and for a business that genuinely only operates inside the state, it is often the right first filing.
The remedies are real. Section 70-3a-404 lets a court order an infringer to hand over profits or pay damages, order counterfeit goods destroyed, and, where the wrongful act was committed with knowledge or in bad faith, enter judgment for up to three times the prevailing party’s profits and damages plus reasonable attorney fees.
What federal registration gives you
Federal registration through the United States Patent and Trademark Office gives nationwide constructive notice, the right to sue in federal court, a basis for foreign filings, and eligibility for incontestability after five years of continuous use under 15 U.S.C. 1065. It also unlocks the counterfeiting remedies in 15 U.S.C. 1117, which allow statutory damages of $1,000 to $200,000 per counterfeit mark per type of goods, rising to $2,000,000 per mark if the use was willful, and treble damages in ordinary infringement cases.
The cost is higher. Per the USPTO trademark fee schedule effective January 18, 2025, the base application fee is $350 per class, with a $100 per class surcharge if the application is missing required information and a $200 per class surcharge for using free-form text instead of the Trademark ID Manual. Maintenance costs money too: $325 per class for the five-year declaration of use, and $650 per class for the combined ten-year declaration and renewal.
| Question |
Utah registration |
Federal registration |
| Geographic scope |
Utah only |
All fifty states |
| Term |
5 years, renewable in 5-year terms |
10 years, renewable, with a use declaration due in years 5 to 6 |
| Base cost |
Statutory cap of $250 per year for one class |
$350 per class at filing |
| Court |
Utah state court |
Federal court, plus state court in most cases |
| Enhanced damages |
Up to 3x profits and damages plus fees for knowing or bad faith acts |
Treble damages, plus counterfeit statutory damages up to $2,000,000 per mark |
| Best for |
Single-location Utah businesses and second-tier marks |
Anything sold online, shipped out of state, or franchised |
Most Herriman businesses that sell anything through a website are already in interstate commerce, which usually points toward federal filing. If you are weighing that decision, our article on whether you should use a lawyer to trademark your company name walks through the tradeoff, and registered trade marks covers the mechanics.
The name-clearance step most owners skip
Registering a Utah LLC name is not a trademark clearance. The Division of Corporations checks whether an entity name is distinguishable from other entity names on file. It does not check whether the name infringes a federal trademark in a different state. Businesses regularly form an entity, print signage, and buy a domain, and only then discover a senior user with nationwide rights. That is an expensive rebrand.
Utah also has a cybersquatting statute with unusually sharp teeth. Under Section 70-3a-402(3) and (4), a plaintiff in a domain-name case under Section 70-3a-309 may elect statutory damages of $1,000 to $100,000 per domain name, and those damages are presumed to be $100,000 per domain name where there is a pattern and practice of willful infringement for commercial gain.
Statutory damages awarded under Subsection (3)(b) are presumed to be $100,000 per domain name if there is a pattern and practice of infringements committed willfully for commercial gain.
Utah Code Section 70-3a-402(4)
Copyright: Free to Create, Expensive to Enforce Late
Copyright attaches automatically when an original work is fixed in a tangible medium. You do not file anything to own it. What you file for is the ability to enforce it, and the timing of that filing determines what you can recover.
Two provisions do the work. 17 U.S.C. 411(a) makes registration a precondition to filing an infringement suit for a United States work, and the Supreme Court confirmed in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com (2019) that this means an actual registration decision, not just a submitted application. 17 U.S.C. 412 then eliminates statutory damages and attorney fees for infringement that began before registration, unless the work was registered within three months of first publication.
The gap between those two outcomes is enormous. Under 17 U.S.C. 504(c), a timely-registered work supports statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, rising to as much as $150,000 per work for willful infringement, without proving a dollar of actual loss. Register late and you are left proving actual damages and the infringer’s profits, which in a small-business case is often less than the cost of proving it.
Registration is cheap by comparison. The United States Copyright Office charges $45 for a single application covering one work by one author who is also the claimant and where the work is not made for hire, $65 for a standard electronic application, and $85 for a group registration of unpublished works. For a Herriman software company or marketing agency, registering the flagship asset at launch is one of the highest-return legal expenditures available.
Work made for hire, and why contractors are different
Employees who create within the scope of employment produce works made for hire, and the employer is the author from the start. Independent contractors do not. A contractor owns the copyright in what they create unless there is a signed written assignment, and the narrow statutory work-made-for-hire category for commissioned works reaches only nine specific types of work.
This is the single most common IP defect an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses hire finds during a diligence review. The company paid for the logo, the website, the app, or the video, and does not own any of it. The fix at formation is a one-page assignment clause. The fix five years later is negotiating with a former contractor who now knows exactly how much leverage they have. Our article on protecting intellectual property in contracts covers the clause language, and copyright protection covers the registration mechanics.
Patents: When the Cost Is Justified, and When It Is Not
Patents are the most expensive form of intellectual property and the one most often pursued for the wrong reason. A utility patent runs 20 years from the filing date under 35 U.S.C. 154, and a design patent runs 15 years from grant under 35 U.S.C. 173. Getting there takes examination, office actions, and usually years.
The filing fees themselves are modest. Under the USPTO fee schedule effective January 19, 2025, a provisional application costs $325 for a large entity, $130 for a small entity, and $65 for a micro entity. The basic utility nonprovisional filing fee is $350, $140, and $70 across those same tiers, and a design patent basic filing fee is $300, $120, and $60. Search and examination fees are additional on nonprovisional filings. The real cost is drafting and prosecution, not the government fee.
The deadline that ends patent rights quietly
The United States gives inventors a one-year grace period. 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(1) excepts disclosures made one year or less before the effective filing date from being prior art against the inventor’s own application. That grace period is a United States rule. Most other countries have absolute novelty requirements, so a public disclosure before filing can destroy foreign rights immediately.
For a Herriman product company, the practical consequence is that a trade show demonstration, a Kickstarter launch, or a published spec sheet starts a clock. A provisional application is the standard tool for holding the date. It stays pending for twelve months and preserves the filing date for a later nonprovisional, at a fee of $65 to $325 depending on entity size.
| Situation |
Usually the right move |
Why |
| Novel mechanical or electronic product about to launch |
Provisional application before any public disclosure |
Holds the filing date for 12 months at minimal cost |
| Distinctive product shape or user interface look |
Design patent, sometimes with trade dress |
Cheaper and faster than utility, and protects appearance |
| Internal process nobody outside can observe |
Trade secret, not a patent |
A patent publishes the process; secrecy lasts indefinitely |
| Software feature with no hardware component |
Copyright plus trade secret first, patent only after counsel review |
Patent eligibility for software is narrow and fact-specific |
| Brand name, logo, or slogan |
Trademark, never a patent |
Patents do not protect names |
Trade Secrets: Where an Intellectual Property Lawyer Herriman Utah Employers Hire Adds the Most Value
Trade secrets are where Utah law does the most direct work, and where an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah employers retain can produce the fastest return. The Utah Uniform Trade Secrets Act, Title 13 Chapter 24, defines a trade secret in Section 13-24-2(4) as information that derives independent economic value from not being generally known or readily ascertainable, and that is the subject of efforts reasonable under the circumstances to maintain its secrecy.
Read that second element carefully. Secrecy is not a state of mind. It is a set of documented practices, and a court will look for them: signed confidentiality agreements, access controls, exit interviews, marked documents, and offboarding that actually revokes credentials.
What the statute gives you
Section 13-24-3 allows injunctions against actual or threatened misappropriation, and in exceptional circumstances a court can condition future use on payment of a reasonable royalty. Section 13-24-4 allows recovery of actual loss plus unjust enrichment not captured by actual loss, or a reasonable royalty instead, and permits exemplary damages of up to twice the compensatory award where the misappropriation was willful and malicious. Section 13-24-5 allows attorney fees to the prevailing party where a claim was made in bad faith or the misappropriation was willful and malicious. Section 13-24-6 requires the court to preserve secrecy during the case through protective orders, sealed records, and in-camera hearings.
The deadline is in Section 13-24-7: three years from when the misappropriation is discovered or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence, and a continuing misappropriation counts as a single claim. The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act uses the same three-year period under 18 U.S.C. 1836(d), and allows exemplary damages of up to two times the compensatory award for willful and malicious misappropriation.
The whistleblower notice almost nobody includes
This is the single highest-value fix in most Herriman employee handbooks. 18 U.S.C. 1833(b)(3) requires an employer to provide notice of the federal trade secret whistleblower immunity in any contract or agreement with an employee that governs the use of a trade secret or other confidential information. If the employer does not comply, it cannot be awarded exemplary damages or attorney fees under the Defend Trade Secrets Act against an employee who never got the notice.
That is a self-inflicted wound in an enormous number of agreements. The notice is a short paragraph. Leaving it out costs the two remedies that make a trade secret case economically worth bringing. Any confidentiality provision drafted before 2016, and a surprising share drafted since, is missing it.
Trade secrets and Utah’s non-compete limits
Employers sometimes try to protect information with a non-compete instead of a confidentiality agreement. Utah limits that. The Post-Employment Restrictions Act at Utah Code Section 34-51-201 caps a post-employment non-compete at one year from termination, and as amended effective May 6, 2026, bans healthcare non-competes outright and bans veterinarian non-competes unless the veterinarian holds at least a five percent ownership interest. Section 34-51-301 makes an employer that loses an enforcement action pay the employee’s costs, attorney fees, and actual damages.
Confidentiality and non-solicitation provisions are not subject to that one-year cap in the same way, which is one reason a well-drafted trade secret program outperforms an aggressive non-compete. See the FTC non-compete ban is dead for how the federal picture changed, and legal steps for hiring your first employee in Utah for the onboarding paperwork.
Your Name, Likeness, and Voice Under Utah’s 2026 AI Amendments
Utah expanded a statute in 2026 that many business owners have not seen. The Abuse of Personal Identity Act, Title 45 Chapter 3, now defines “personal identity” to include a person’s picture, portrait, visual or video likeness, voice, and audiovisual appearance, and expressly includes any simulation, reproduction, or artificial recreation created through generative artificial intelligence, computer animation, or digital manipulation.
Section 45-3-3 gives each individual the exclusive right to consent to use of their personal identity, including a replication right, and provides that the right does not expire until 70 years after death and is descendible to heirs and assignees. For individuals who died before May 6, 2026, it applies retroactively for up to 70 years.
For a Herriman marketing agency, video producer, or e-commerce brand using AI-generated voice or likeness in advertising, this is a live compliance issue, not a theoretical one. It also matters to anyone whose own face or voice is being used without permission. Related reading: advertising lawyer, sponsored content legal requirements, and online advertising compliance strategies.
Building an IP Program With an Intellectual Property Lawyer Herriman Utah Companies Trust
Herriman has grown fast. The city’s own community facts page reports that WalletHub rated Herriman in 2026 as the second best city in Salt Lake County, sixth in Utah, and twenty-first in the United States to start a small business, and first nationally in access to resources. It also notes Census data showing Herriman was the fastest-growing United States city over 10,000 residents from 2010 to 2019. A lot of new companies means a lot of new brands competing for the same names.
A workable IP program for a company that size has five parts, and most of them are documents rather than filings. This is the sequence an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah founders consult will usually run through in the first meeting.
| Step |
What it covers |
When to do it |
| 1. Inventory |
List every brand, work, invention, and confidential dataset the business owns or uses |
At formation, then annually |
| 2. Chain of title |
Assignments from founders, employees, and every contractor who ever created something |
Immediately, and before any financing or sale |
| 3. Clearance and registration |
Trademark search before launch, copyright registration for flagship works, patent filing before disclosure |
Before public launch |
| 4. Confidentiality infrastructure |
Confidentiality agreements with the whistleblower notice, access controls, offboarding checklist |
Before the first hire or vendor |
| 5. Enforcement plan |
Monitoring, a demand letter process, and a decision rule for when to escalate |
Once the brand has value worth defending |
Step two is where most value is created or destroyed. When a buyer runs due diligence when buying a business, a gap in the chain of title is a price adjustment or a deal-killer. The same is true in financing. Cleaning it up early is far cheaper than negotiating under a deadline, and it pairs naturally with the entity work covered in Utah LLC formation and LLC operating agreements.
Herriman city licensing does not touch your IP
Worth clearing up, because it confuses people. Herriman requires a city business license for every business operating inside the corporate limits, and the city frames it as a zoning verification rather than a receipt. Licensing information is at herriman.gov/licenses, with City Hall at 5355 W Main Street, Herriman, UT 84096, and the licensing office reachable at 801-446-5323. New businesses can start at the city’s starting a business page.
None of that creates or protects intellectual property. Neither does registering an entity or a DBA. Those are three separate systems, and satisfying one says nothing about the others. See do I need a business license and an LLC and do you need an LLC or a DBA for how those pieces fit.
Licensing and Monetizing Intellectual Property
Owning intellectual property is one problem. Making money from it without losing control is another, and it is mostly a drafting exercise. A license that does not define the field of use, the territory, the term, exclusivity, quality control, and what happens on termination will eventually produce a dispute.
Trademark licenses carry a specific trap. A trademark owner who licenses a mark without exercising quality control over the licensee’s goods or services risks a naked licensing finding, which can result in abandonment of the mark. Utah’s own definition of an abandoned mark in Section 70-3a-103(1)(a) includes a mark whose significance has been lost due to a course of conduct by the owner, and nonuse for two consecutive years is prima facie evidence of abandonment.
Franchising is trademark licensing with a heavy regulatory layer on top, and it is the most common way a successful Herriman brand scales. Start with how to create a franchise agreement in Utah, legal considerations for franchises in Utah, and franchise agreements and expansion.
Software and content licensing raise a different set of questions, particularly around open-source components, indemnity, and data rights. Our pieces on contract indemnification in Utah, Utah commercial contracts, and dispute resolution clauses address the terms that decide who pays when a license goes wrong.
When Someone Infringes: The Realistic Sequence
Infringement responses follow a fairly standard escalation, and the goal at every step is to solve the problem without the expense of litigation. An intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses call after finding a knockoff will normally work down this list rather than filing first.
Evidence first. Screenshots with dates, purchase records, archived pages, and a written timeline. Anything you cannot document later you cannot rely on.
Platform takedowns. For online copyright infringement, the notice-and-takedown process under 17 U.S.C. 512 is fast and free. Marketplaces and social platforms have parallel trademark reporting processes. A misrepresentation in a takedown notice carries its own liability under Section 512(f), so accuracy matters.
Demand letter. A precise letter that identifies the right, the infringing use, and a specific deadline resolves a large share of disputes. A vague one invites a fight and can create a declaratory judgment risk.
Domain disputes. Where a domain is the problem, the UDRP administrative process or a claim under Utah’s cybersquatting provision may be faster and cheaper than a full lawsuit, especially given the presumed $100,000 per domain statutory damages for a willful pattern.
Litigation. Patent and copyright cases go to federal court in the District of Utah. Trade secret claims can go to either court system, and Utah trademark and contract claims go to the Third Judicial District. If you are on the receiving end of a claim instead, see what to do if your business gets sued in Utah and what happens if you get sued as a small business owner. Mediation and arbitration are often better fits for IP disputes between business partners, as covered in alternative dispute resolution.
What IP Work Costs, and How to Budget It
Legal fees charged by an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses engage vary with complexity, but the government fees above give a floor. A realistic first-year IP budget for a Herriman small business is dominated by trademark clearance and filing, a set of well-drafted agreements, and one or two copyright registrations. Patent work sits in a different budget category entirely and should be evaluated against the commercial value of the exclusivity.
For fee structures generally, see how much a business lawyer costs in Utah and what a fractional general counsel costs in Utah. Many growing companies handle IP through an ongoing relationship rather than one-off matters, which is the model behind the complete business legal program and general counsel services for small business.
What Changes in Utah IP Law in Late 2026
Two changes are worth calendaring with your intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah counsel. First, Utah’s 2026 general session renumbered the business entity titles, and Section 70-3a-405 of the trademark act is superseded effective October 1, 2026, with its cross-reference for service on nonresident registrants moving from Section 16-10a-1511 to Section 16-1a-1511. The substance of the trademark act is unchanged; the citations around it move.
Second, the Abuse of Personal Identity Act amendments described above took effect in the 2026 session and reach AI-generated likeness and voice, which is a genuinely new exposure for advertising and content businesses. If your agreements or your marketing were built before 2026, both are worth a review. See the 2026 legal documents checklist for small business in Utah and starting a business in Utah in 2026.
How to Choose an Intellectual Property Lawyer Herriman Utah Businesses Can Rely On
Two practical filters matter more than anything else on a website. First, patent prosecution before the USPTO requires separate registration as a patent attorney or patent agent, which is a technical credential distinct from a state bar license. A business attorney can handle trademark, copyright, trade secret, licensing, and litigation strategy, and should tell you plainly when a matter requires registered patent counsel.
Second, ask what the engagement actually produces. An intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses benefit from should deliver an inventory, a chain of title that closes the gaps, agreements that include the required statutory notices, and a filing plan with dates on it. If the deliverable is only a filing receipt, the underlying ownership problems are still there.
Questions worth asking are collected in 25 questions to ask before hiring a business lawyer. Conflicts are worth understanding too, since IP work often touches multiple related businesses: see what is a conflict of interest for a lawyer.
Related Services for Herriman Businesses
Intellectual property rarely arrives alone. The same conversation usually touches entity structure, contracts, real estate, and tax. For Herriman specifically, see business lawyer Herriman Utah, contract lawyer Herriman Utah, commercial real estate lawyer Herriman Utah, and tax lawyer Herriman Utah. For neighboring cities in the southwest valley, see business lawyer Riverton Utah, business lawyer Bluffdale Utah, business contract lawyer Riverton UT, and corporate attorney West Jordan UT.
IP services elsewhere in Utah are covered at intellectual property lawyer West Jordan Utah, Draper, Taylorsville, Holladay, Orem, Eagle Mountain, Springville, Park City, Heber, Payson, Santaquin, and Centerville.
Adjacent topics that come up constantly in IP conversations: copyright lawyer, intellectual property attorney, IP lawyer, social media trademark claims, Utah attorney for authors, commercial real estate and intellectual property, data collection laws, data breach response, privacy policies for B2B websites, estate planning for business asset protection, business succession planning, Utah partnership agreements, Utah startup attorney, Utah small business attorney, why free contract templates backfire, and the power of preventive lawyering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah businesses recommend if my company is small?
Size matters less than what you own. If your business has a brand customers recognize, a customer list, original content, or a product design, you already have intellectual property. The work an intellectual property lawyer Herriman Utah owners need at that stage is mostly agreements and a filing plan, not litigation.
Should I register my trademark in Utah or with the USPTO?
If you sell only inside Utah, a state registration under Utah Code Section 70-3a-305 lasts five years and the statutory fee cap is $250 per year for one class. If you sell online, ship out of state, or plan to franchise, federal registration at $350 per class is usually the better investment because it gives nationwide rights.
How long does a Utah trademark registration last?
Five years from the date the Division of Corporations certifies the registration. You can renew for additional five-year terms by filing no sooner than six months before expiration and no later than six months after, and there is no limit on the number of renewals.
Do I have to register a copyright to own it?
No. Copyright exists as soon as the work is fixed in a tangible form. But 17 U.S.C. 411(a) requires registration before you can file an infringement suit, and 17 U.S.C. 412 eliminates statutory damages and attorney fees for infringement that started before you registered, unless you registered within three months of publication.
How much are copyright and patent filing fees?
Electronic copyright registration is $45 for a single work by one author, $65 for a standard application, and $85 for a group of unpublished works. A provisional patent application is $325, $130, or $65 depending on whether you are a large, small, or micro entity, and the basic utility filing fee is $350, $140, or $70, with search and examination fees additional.
How long do I have to sue for trade secret misappropriation in Utah?
Three years. Utah Code Section 13-24-7 runs the clock from when the misappropriation is discovered or should have been discovered with reasonable diligence, and a continuing misappropriation counts as one claim. The federal Defend Trade Secrets Act uses the same three-year period.
What is the whistleblower notice my confidentiality agreements are missing?
Under 18 U.S.C. 1833(b)(3), an employer must give notice of the federal trade secret whistleblower immunity in any agreement with an employee that governs use of a trade secret or confidential information. Without it, the employer cannot recover exemplary damages or attorney fees under the Defend Trade Secrets Act against that employee.
Who owns work I paid a freelancer to create?
The freelancer, unless there is a signed written assignment. Independent contractors are not employees, so the work made for hire rule generally does not apply, and paying an invoice does not transfer copyright. This is the most common ownership gap found in diligence reviews.
Can I use an AI-generated voice or likeness in my advertising?
Not without consent in Utah. The Abuse of Personal Identity Act now covers simulations and artificial recreations of a person’s likeness or voice created through generative artificial intelligence, gives the individual an exclusive replication right, and extends that right for 70 years after death.
Where would my intellectual property case be heard?
Patent and copyright claims must be filed in federal court, which for Herriman means the United States District Court for the District of Utah. Trade secret, state trademark, licensing, and contract claims are heard in Utah’s Third Judicial District, which covers Salt Lake County.
If you are launching a brand, hiring your first employee, or discovering that someone is using your work, the first conversation is usually short and it usually saves money.
Schedule a consultation or call (801) 613-1472.
Written by Jeremy Eveland, a business attorney licensed in Utah, Nevada, California, and Texas, who works with Utah companies on entity formation, contracts, intellectual property, and business disputes.
This article is general information, not legal advice, and statutes and fee schedules change. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
