Accomplished Intellectual Property Lawyer Based In Orange County

Attorney Roland Tong

is a partner at the law firm of Manning, & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP. He treats every client as if he or she were his only client. He assists entrepreneurs and businesses throughout California and the United States with every aspect of intellectual property law. He has the dedication and devotion to handle the most complicated cases and is proud of his track record of success.

Mr. Tong’s extensive technical background allows him to better understand your business, your products and your needs. He has experience with both IP prosecution and defense which gives him the ability to see a case from both perspectives. Whether working with an inventor, a product manufacturer or a business owner, Mr. Tong has the skills and experience to handle all aspects of a case. For an overview of his professional background and qualifications.

A Respected Litigator

For more than 20 years, Mr. Tong has assisted clients in cases involving business disputes, contract disputes, intellectual property (IP) litigation, patent prosecution, and trademarks. Roland Tong is admitted to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, all state courts of both California and Nevada, the Federal District Courts of California and Nevada, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the US Supreme Court.

Attorney Roland Tong has been selected in multiple years for inclusion in Super Lawyers Southern California Rising Stars. Approximately 5% of practicing attorneys in Southern California receive this distinction. He has a perfect 10 “superb” rating on Avvo, as well as the distinction of being highlighted for being a client’s choice on Avvo in 2016. He is prepared to put his skill and experience to work for you.

Why Choose Roland Tong?

A former general counsel for a technology company, Attorney Roland Tong offers highly personalized representation. He will work closely with you throughout your case. This allows him to fully understand the details of your case as well as your needs and goals.

Beginning with a free initial consultation to understand how to best meet your business needs and objectives, you will receive personalized attention from him.

Get Help With Your IP Matter

Whether you are seeking legal assistance for a patent, copyright or trademark issue or a legal representative to provide intellectual property litigation or defense, Attorney Roland Tong can help.

Business Litigation:

Protecting Your Rights And Assets In Business Disputes

Disputes are common both between businesses and between businesses and consumers. It is crucial to make sure you have a skilled attorney looking out for your legal rights and financial interests when you face a business-related dispute.

In Southern California, you can turn to Attorney Roland Tong, partner at the law firm of Manning, & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP. Roland served as general counsel to a multimillion-dollar company where he litigated, managed and supervised outside counsel in crucial cases. You can rely on his experience and skills to resolve your business disputes with favorable terms that protect your rights, your bottom line and your business assets.

Full-Service Representation For Business Disputes

Disputes involving businesses can be very distracting to business owners taking away the time and attention they need to smoothly and successfully operate their businesses. We have the resources and knowledge necessary to handle various forms of business disputes so our clients can focus on what they do best- run their businesses. Our practice includes resolving claims that involve:

  • Intellectual property (IP) including patent, trademark, and copyright infringement claims as well as trade secret misappropriation claims
  • Unfair competition claims
  • Fraud or misrepresentation claims
  • Breach of contract
  • Construction disputes between contractors and subcontractors
  • Partnership and ownership disputes

Attorney Roland Tong, partner at the law firm of Manning, & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP, will employ highly experienced attorneys and legal resources to represent your business with an eye toward effective solutions that fit your budget. Attorney Roland Tong can help you find smart solutions — whether it is through negotiations, mediation, arbitration, settlement, or trial — in a way that minimizes costs and provides a favorable outcome.

Speak With An Experienced Lawyer

Protecting your rights, your business and your assets begins with a single phone call. Call 949-693-1537 today to schedule a meeting. We work with business clients in Los Angeles, in Orange County, and throughout Southern California.

Breach of Contract:

Protecting Your Contractual Rights

You will encounter a contractual dispute if you are in business long enough; it is a matter of when, not if. When you do find yourself in a breach of contract dispute, your choice of legal representation can make all the difference as you seek to protect your legal, financial and business interests. You need an attorney who can help you find smart solutions that resolve issues favorably while protecting your bottom line.

An Aggressive Yet Practical Lawyer For Your Breach Of Contract Case

Attorney Roland Tong, partner at the law firm of Manning, & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP, combines our firm’s commitment to thorough representation and attentive service with the skills and resources necessary to effectively resolve complex breach of contract disputes involving businesses. You can turn to Attorney Roland Tong for help with all of your breach of contract issues, including those stemming from issues such as:

  • Supplier and vendor contracts
  • Service agreements
  • Partnership agreements
  • Employment and Contractor agreements
  • Sales and purchase agreements
  • Construction disputes between contractors and subcontractors
  • Trade secret misappropriation 
  • Intellectual property issues including responding to cease and desist letters

Attorney Roland Tong combines his extensive legal experience – including serving as general counsel to a multimillion-dollar company – with a firm grasp on the latest technology for e-discovery, document review or production. This allows him to limit costs and find solutions that are favorable from both a legal and a financial perspective. We are prepared to pursue negotiation, mediation, arbitration, settlement or litigation to protect your rights.

Take The First Step Today

Protecting your contractual rights begins with a single step. Call 949-693-1537 today to schedule a meeting. We work with business clients in Los Angeles, in Orange County, and throughout Southern California.

Commercial and Corporate Services:

Business Counsel For Your Corporate Transactions

Every business will encounter situations that require the help of a knowledgeable attorney. Many businesses understand how important having legal representation is but cannot justify the cost of having an internal legal department on the payroll. In Southern California, you can turn to a proven attorney to handle all of your general counsel needs with a focus on finding smart solutions for protecting your legal and financial interests.

Attorney Roland Tong served as general counsel for a multimillion-dollar company, litigating, managing and supervising outside counsel in several crucial cases. Today, he offers corporate and commercial services including:

  • Business formation and entity selection (LLC, partnerships, corporations, etc.)
  • Drafting and reviewing various agreements, such as nondisclosure agreements, buy/sell agreements, and operating agreements
  • Amending your organization’s documents
  • Contracts with suppliers, vendors, contractors, and customers
  • Reviewing marketing and advertising documents against false advertising claim and intellectual property infringement claims
  • Business litigation

You can rely on attorney Roland Tong to handle these legal issues, freeing you to devote your time and resources to operating your business. He has experience offering legal advice, counsel and representation to a wide range of small and medium-sized businesses in Irvine, in Los Angeles and throughout Southern California. With his experience and the firm’s resources on your side, you do not have to choose between having the legal representation you need and being prudent with your financial resources.

Speak To An Attorney About Your Business and Corporate Law Needs

If you are seeking a Southern California lawyer with experience protecting the legal rights, financial interests and assets of businesses, call 949-693-1537 to schedule a consultation with attorney Roland Tong.

Experienced Counsel To Safeguard Your IP Rights

Protecting your intellectual property is critical to the success of any business venture. Whether the issue involves a patent, trademark, copyright or trade secret, you’ve got a lot at stake so make sure your creation is recognized properly and your rights are enforced.

Roland Tong is an experienced intellectual property attorney based in Southern California. For over 20 years, he has helped small business owners, scientists, inventors and engineers safeguard their creative work so that it can be properly monetized. His practice encompasses both applications for patents or trademarks and litigation in cases where disputes arise.

Applications For Patents Or Trademarks:

How To Apply For A Patent, Trademark Or Copyright

The following information is directed to inventors, engineers and scientists working in small business contexts, as well as individuals who create gadgets or devices as a side hustle. The most honest and satisfactory answer to how to apply for these types of intellectual property (IP) is to work with an experienced IP lawyer. This approach can save time, money and headaches, while greatly maximizing your opportunities for success.

While there is much information online about these application processes, what looks simple can actually be complex. For the ordinary person who does not have years of experience and has not witnessed outcomes of litigation in all these areas, there are many opportunities to make mistakes. Some applicants commit errors that make them lose the chance for a favorable outcome.

Attorney Roland Tong has helped countless clients protect their intellectual property through and beyond the application process. His skills and knowledge allow him to cut through the many forms and procedures efficiently and in a customized way, suitable to each applicant, type of intellectual property and intended purpose.

Application Processes For Each Type Of Intellectual Property

When you apply for a patent, you (or someone whom you hire) may first need to conduct a patent search to make sure that a similar patent does not already exist. Next, your invention needs to be accurately and thoroughly described in a patent application that is submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  The patent application needs to include claims that broadly protect your invention and that make it difficult for others to unlawfully copy it. If you succeed at obtaining a patent, it can become a profitable business asset if you put it to good use.

When you apply for a trademark, you will (1) select a trademark; (2) prepare and submit an application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), complete with a drawing of the trademark; (3) wait for a notification and then work with a USPTO examining attorney before you receive approval. If you succeed, you will have the right to bring a trademark infringement action in federal court if necessary.

Do I Need IP Protection For My Invention Or Device?:

Ask An IP Lawyer About Legal Protection Of Your Inventions

If you are serious about developing and marketing a new invention, this is something worth talking with an IP attorney about. You may already be in business making or selling goods and you have ideas for expanding your product line. The fact that you are wondering about this is a good sign that some legal advice could help provide the direction you need to take the next steps forward.

Who Is A Good Candidate For IP Advice And Assistance?

You may be a small-business owner looking to add more variety to your product line. For example:

  • You may modify existing training aids for various sports, such as golf, fitness, and firearms, and seek a patent for them.
  • You may manufacture toys for children and want to add toys for pets to your product line, or you may make dog collars and want to add pet toys to your list of goods for wholesale.

Any of these examples demonstrate that someone is very likely ready to get legal advice on patents and trademarks.

Patent Applications:

Prepare To Apply For A Patent With A Respected Attorney’s Guidance

As you move forward with hopes and plans to patent one or more inventions, please understand the importance of the fundamentals that come before actually filing an application for a patent. Such fundamentals include:

  • Verifying that your invention is patentable
  • Understanding that inventions – not just ideas – are patentable
  • Conducting a patent search to ascertain whether a patent holder already exists for the product or process that you have in mind protecting
  • Working closely with an experienced, proven-effective intellectual property (IP) attorney for best results

Attorney Roland Tong welcomes your inquiry about how to patent one or more inventions. He has the technical skills and experience necessary to help you protect a patentable invention. He can advise you on other forms of IP protection, as well, such as trademarks.

What Can And Cannot Be Patented

A good place to start with any patenting idea is to confirm whether something is patentable. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), utility patents can be obtained for new, nonobvious and useful inventions that fall within the following categories:

  • Processes
  • Machines
  • Article of manufactures
  • Compositions of matter
  • Improvements of any of the above

Other types of patents available are design patents and plant patents covering certain plant varieties.

Things that cannot be patented include the following:

  • Laws of nature
  • Physical phenomena
  • Abstract ideas
  • Creative works, such as literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works
  • Unuseful or morally offensive inventions

Tests of patentability include determinations of the following characterizations of true inventions:

  • Are they novel?
  • Are they nonobvious?
  • Can they be adequately described or can someone of ordinary skill in the art make and use the invention based on your clear instructions?
  • Can you claim yourself to be the inventor in clear and definite terms?

Once you have answered these questions sufficiently to verify that your invention is patentable, seek step-by-step guidance from a knowledgeable IP attorney through the application process. Attorney Roland Tong has successfully gotten many clients on the path to profitability with solid patents of their innovative products and processes. He can do the same for your patentable invention.

Trademarks And Copyrights:

We Handle Trademark Issues With Confidence

When you have expended time, effort and money into branding or creating a product or creative work, it’s important that you protect it from being copied or used by another entity. Attorney Roland Tong, partner at the law firm of Manning, & Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, Trester LLP, assists clients throughout Orange County, California. The firm assists clients who render services and sell goods nationwide to secure trademarks through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). 

Guiding You Through The Trademark Registration Process

A trademark is a distinctive word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination of all four, that distinguishes the products or services of an individual or business organization from the products and services of other entities. A federal trademark is good for 10 years in which time it can be renewed if the trademark user can prove the mark is continuously being used to promote goods and/or services.

Trademark Clearance Searches

Before you adopt a mark, affix a mark on your product labels, or engage in promoting a brand name, it is important that an experienced trademark attorney has cleared the mark. Many inexperienced professionals may only rely on the USTPO database when clearing the mark. Although the USPTO maintains a database of registered trademarks, it’s important to have an attorney conduct a thorough search beyond the USPTO database and interpret the results. This shows that the trademark user performed due diligence and would keep the trademark user from being required to pay damages and attorney’s fees if an infringement case should arise.

Clearance searches are comprehensive searches and involve searching additional databases to ensure that another individual or business does not claim common law rights to the mark.

Trademark Opposition Or Cancellation

Attorney Roland Tong has substantial experience before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). When you have invested a substantial amount of resources in promoting a mark and a subsequent user of the same or similar mark attempts to use or register that mark, Roland Tong can help your company oppose the registration attempt and stop the subsequent user from continuing its use.

It is not common for subsequent users to try to cancel your existing registration and force you to change your product or business name by initiating a cancellation proceeding before the TTAB. Attorney Roland Tong can help you preserve your product or business name and defend you in cancellation proceedings.

Case Histories- IP Litigation/ Patent Disputes/ Lawsuits:

Case Histories- IP Litigation/ Patent Disputes/ Lawsuits

Patent and Trademark Lawsuits (Litigation)

Cogent Medicine Inc. v. Skyscape.com, Inc. et al. – Northern District of California

  • Defended a health information provider from a patent infringement lawsuit alleging their websites and mobile device applications infringed a patent covering a computer-based method and system for storing medical data. The patent was held invalid under 35 USC Section 101.

Kitsch LLC v. Alexia Crawford, Inc.– Central District of California

  • Pursued copyright infringement claims relating to hair bands and hair ties.

Thermolife Int’l, LLC v. Better Body Sports LLC et al. – Central District of California

  • Defended one of the nutritional supplement defendants sued for allegedly infringing a patent relating to a D-aspartic Acid Supplement. Patent was held invalid and summary judgment was granted in favor of the defendants.

Rage Hard Choppers, Inc. dba Big Bear Choppers v. Daytec and Phillip R. Day – Central District of California

  • Defended defendants in a patent infringement lawsuit alleging infringement of several design patents relating to custom motorcycle parts.

Sasco v. Weber Electric Manufacturing Company– Central District of California

  • Defended a patent infringement lawsuit alleging infringement of a patent covering multi-compartment cable reels including filing a reexamination.

Otter Products, LLC v. mophie, LLC– District of Colorado

  • Defended mophie, LLC in patent infringement lawsuit in the District of Colorado relating to protective cell phone cases.

FBA Holding, Inc. v. Lexmark International, Inc. – Central District of California

  • Filed and pursued a lawsuit seeking declaratory relief of patent exhaustion and patent non-infringement against Lexmark’s patents relating to printer cartridges.

Lexmark Int’l., Inc. v. Ink Jet Technologies Printers et al. – Southern District of Ohio

  • Defended a printer cartridge remanufacturer in a patent infringement lawsuit alleging infringement of several patents relating to printer cartridges.

If you are seeking a Southern California lawyer with intellectual property expertise, Attorney Roland Tong can answer your questions. Complete an online contact form to schedule an appointment.