Industrial companies make physical things through increasingly digital processes. A production line runs on proprietary process knowledge, a vehicle runs on software, and a satellite depends on export licenses and spectrum before it ever reaches orbit. The legal exposure follows the supply chain: purchase orders with conflicting terms, suppliers that miss deliveries, competitors who hire your engineers, patents asserted against a component, and regulators who decide whether a product can ship. We are a litigation and transactional firm focused on intellectual property, technology, and business disputes, with a founder who came from engineering. We understand production and product technology well enough to protect them in contracts and to defend them in court.
Manufacturing, Mobility, Aerospace, And Space
Five sectors make up this group. Manufacturing covers industrial and contract manufacturers protecting production innovations and trade secrets, managing supplier and customer contracts, and dealing with automation, IoT, and smart factory data. Automotive covers OEMs, suppliers, and EV and battery companies handling software-defined vehicles, connected car data, and supply agreements. Autonomous vehicles covers self-driving technology for ground, air, and maritime systems, including testing and deployment permits, standards, and liability. Aerospace and defense covers contractors and suppliers working under ITAR, the EAR, CFIUS review, and government contracting rules. Space and satellite covers launch providers, satellite operators, and earth observation companies dealing with FAA, FCC, and NOAA licensing, international space law, and commercial space ventures.
Contracts, Safety, And Export Rules
Industrial work starts with commercial contracts. Sales of goods fall under UCC Article 2, where the battle of the forms under Section 2-207 often decides whose terms govern a purchase order, and implied warranties apply unless properly disclaimed. Vehicles answer to NHTSA under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, including recall obligations and crash reporting for automated driving systems, plus state AV testing and deployment rules. Aircraft and drones answer to the FAA. Defense articles and technical data are controlled under ITAR, and dual-use items under the EAR, while CFIUS reviews foreign investment in sensitive businesses. Government contractors work under the FAR and DFARS, including technical data rights clauses and the CMMC cybersecurity program. Commercial space adds FAA launch licensing, FCC spectrum, and NOAA remote sensing licenses.
Protecting Production IP
Industrial intellectual property is often invisible. The most valuable assets are frequently process parameters, tooling designs, formulations, test data, and control software, and these are usually protected as trade secrets rather than patents. That makes confidentiality agreements, access controls, and employee agreements the front line, and it makes departing engineers and former suppliers the most common source of disputes. Patents matter too: component suppliers face infringement claims from competitors and patent assertion entities, and imported products can be excluded from the U.S. market through Section 337 investigations at the ITC. In defense work, the DFARS data rights clauses determine whether the government receives unlimited rights in technical data you developed. We read the drawings and the code, which helps us protect what they contain.
Supply Chain And IP Litigation
We litigate the disputes that interrupt production. On the commercial side, that includes claims over defective parts, late deliveries, price increases, allocation during shortages, tooling ownership, termination of long-term supply agreements, and warranty and recall cost recovery. On the IP side, we bring and defend trade secret cases against departing employees, former suppliers, and joint venture partners, often starting with emergency injunctive relief, and we assert and defend patents in district court, at the PTAB, and in ITC proceedings. We also handle disputes arising from government contracts and subcontracts, and we respond to government investigations involving export controls or the False Claims Act. Where contracts call for arbitration, including with international suppliers, we handle the arbitration and the enforcement of the award.
Agreements And Counseling
Our transactional work covers the agreements that keep production moving and the counseling that keeps it lawful. We draft and negotiate master supply agreements, purchase order terms and conditions, quality agreements, tooling agreements, and contract manufacturing agreements. We handle joint development and joint venture agreements, technology licenses, and software and data agreements for connected products and factory systems. For aerospace, defense, and space clients we handle teaming agreements, subcontracts, and data rights assertions, and we coordinate export classification and licensing with your compliance team. For automotive and autonomous vehicle companies we address software licensing, vehicle data and privacy, and liability allocation among suppliers. We do not prosecute patents, but we advise on patent strategy, licensing, and freedom to operate.
How We Work With Industrial Clients
Before drafting or litigating, we want to understand the product, the process, and the supply chain, including who makes what, where it ships, and which terms govern each relationship. We then confirm scope and cost in writing. In contract work, we standardize where possible, building terms and conditions and templates that your purchasing and sales teams can use without calling us for every order. In disputes, we move quickly to secure production records, inspection reports, CAD files, and communications, and we work with your engineers to identify the technical issues that will decide the case. Our Washington, DC headquarters keeps us close to the agencies that regulate defense and space work, and our Knoxville office sits in the middle of a manufacturing corridor.
Fixed Fees And Written Estimates
We price defined work as flat-fee products with a fixed price, a stated scope, and a set turnaround. For industrial companies that includes NDAs for suppliers and prospective partners, standard purchase order and sales terms and conditions, employee confidentiality and invention assignment agreements, and trademark registration. Supply chain litigation, trade secret cases, ITC proceedings, and complex negotiations are scoped and estimated in writing before work begins, broken out by phase so you can see where the cost falls. If the facts change, we revise the estimate and tell you why. That gives your finance team a number it can plan around, the same way it plans around a capital purchase or a tooling order.
