Dr. Lord's firm, Nancy Lord, Ltd, has become recognized internationally for its work in several areas of intellectual property.

The firm's team of professionals and experts include industrial chemists and seasoned patent agents who works with Dr. Lord in patent prosecution in areas of medical devices, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemistry, engineering, business methods, gaming technology, and entertainment law.

Nancy has offices in Parhump, Nevada and Forsythe, Missouri; just a few minutes away from Branson.

Innovative Medicine

Nancy Lord, MD maintains an active medical license in New York and her firm provides clients with full-service representation as it relates to all types of innovative medical products from nutritional supplements to medical devices. Dr. Lord has experience in product development, patent and trademark prosecution, licensing, regulatory compliance, consumer issues, first amendment and advertising issues. She has represented clients in medical product related matters before the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, ICANN (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution), NAAG (National Association of Attorney Generals), the Better Business Bureau, and State and Federal courts.

Since 1993, Dr. Lord has defended FDA criminal cases and she became well known in the innovative medical community for her successful defense of Tierra Marketing, Inc. in 1994, charged with 15 counts of FDCA, Customs and Trademark violations. She later served on the team as amicus attorney in the well known case of Durk Pearson et al., v. Shalala, et al., 164 F.3d 650 (DC Cir. 1999).

Intellectual Property

Nancy Lord is a Registered Patent Attorney experienced in preparing and prosecuting patent and trademark applications for health and medical products. She has worked as in house counsel, part-time, for two of the nation's most successful nutritional supplement companies on Intellectual Property and Regulatory matters.

In addition to prosecuting patents and trademarks, Dr. Lord assists inventors and corporations in developing licensing agreements with larger companies and meeting regulatory requirements.

First Amendment and Entertainment Law

Nancy Lord was formerly General Counsel to Sierra Times, a popular Internet news site. She has successfully represented several clients in defamation cases both in state and federal court. One of these involved statements about a competitive product on a web page. She has also negotiated contracts for the use of a celebrity's name and likeness in product sales.

Trademarks

Many of the creative names and logos visible to tourists in Branson, Missouri could be registered either as word marks or as designs (logos). This is important, because if they are not registered, they could be copied and used in another location. By registering your name or design, you would be entitled to treble damages under federal law if another company uses your name or design. A few of the signs in the Branson area could be patented as design patents, providing even more protection.

Trademarks are very easy to register provided the mark is not confusingly similar to another registered mark. There is a database used by trademark attorneys to learn if there are any similar marks out there, whether registered nationally or in an individual state.

It is better that you do this before you begin to use a fanciful or suggestive name for a product. If you use a name that is similar to a registered mark, you might be forced to cease such use and even pay money damages to the owner of the senior mark. It is much better to make sure that the mark is available before you introduce it into the marketplace so that you do not have to change it later on.

Even if you have already been using your mark or design for years, registration is still an important step. The mark can be filed as already being in use, and the date of first use will be listed even if it was years ago. This will be helpful if someone were to have started using the same mark after you did, but did not register it.

Patents

Patents are legal instruments that create property rights in technological advances. They protect investments in time, money and other resources by inventors, venture capitalists and corporations.

When you make a scientific or other type of discovery, you may be entitled to a patent

There are patents granted every day for a wide variety of nutritional supplements, novel compositions, and novel devices. Even an old composition may be patented as a method when utilized in a novel manner.

A creative design can also be patented, such as the design for a billboard. A design patent can be obtained for something that has only artistic value without any utility. Many of the signs and creative work seen around Branson could be protected with a design patent.

A patent gives an inventor or his or her assignee the right to file suit against another party who is using the invention. Once a patent issues, and sometimes even prior to issue, the patent holder or applicant can license his or her invention to others for royalties.

An application gives you the right to place a label "patent pending" on your product, and an issued patent allows you to label your product as such. This enhances the value of your discovery, and warns would-be infringers against copying.

However, there are several reasons why a patent may be barred, including even one sale of the product prior to one year before filing. For this reason, you should consult a patent attorney as soon as you feel that you might be entitled to a patent.

Food and Drug Law

Dr. Lord offers quality and timely preparation of 510k FDA submissions for new medical devices, and New Dietary Ingredient submissions required under the DSHEA Act for dietary ingredients that were not in use prior to October 15, 1994. She assists in designing clinical trials to substantiate structure/function and health claims, and bioavailability studies for generic drug equivalents. Formerly Associate Director of Clinical Research at Abbott Laboratories, Dr. Lord supervised the clinical trials and prepared the New Drug Application for Abbott's ProSom, a benzodiazepine hypnotic. She is familiar with the requirements of informed consent, Institutional Review, and other regulatory requirements for clinical trials of new medical products.

General Civil Litigation

Dr. Lord represents clients on a variety of civil matters. Her earliest local clients included a sharp-shooter who killed a predatory mountain lion only to have the pelt taken by the State; a couple who lost and recovered over $50,000 from a local con man; and several victims of a notorious Nye County dog catcher who is alleged to have stolen the very animals he was hired to protect.

Pahrump was developed to a large extent by Preferred Equities Corporation, which purchased large tracts of land and sold it mostly as 1.25 acre lots in various neighborhoods. The validity of the various restrictions that it attempted to impose on those properties has been the subject of much litigation in Pahrump. Dr. Lord was the first attorney to obtain an unequivocal District Court Order that restrictions that were not recorded were of no legal effect.

The Fifth Judicial District of Nevada, in Pahrump, offers faster and more predictable litigation than the crowded dockets of Las Vegas and Reno, and is appropriate in more cases than one might expect. Incorporation in Nevada is advantageous for many reasons, and is a popular choice for companies whose principal place of business is elsewhere. NRS § 13.040 provides that "if none of the defendants reside in the State . . . the [case] may be tried in any county in which the plaintiff may designate." This means that if the Bad Guy lists his principal place of business as Illinois, we can file in Pahrump and get a hearing date within weeks, a TRO where requirements are shown, and possibly even a trial date less than a year from filing. Proceedings happen when they are scheduled, and there are spacious and inexpensive hotels within a few miles of the courthouse. Dr. Lord represents plaintiffs who use this statute to avoid big city hassles and move their cases along expeditiously.

Licensed to Practice Civil Litigation

Criminal Law

From her earliest years in law, Dr. Lord successfully represented clients on Federal charges including violations of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and controlled substances, customs, mail and telemarketing fraud violations. She has represented clients in the U.S. District Courts of Georgia, Florida, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota and State Courts in Georgia, Florida, California, Nevada, and Maine.

Dr. Lord was honored to represent Judy Osburn, charged with manufacture of marijuana by the federal government for the medicine she provided to the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, a city-run cooperative for medical marijuana patients suffering from AIDS, cancer and other serious conditions. Ms. Osburn received a downward departure under the lesser harms doctrine and was sentenced to probation, as the Court eloquently described LACRC as having had "a brief and shining moment" of transparency and rigorous compliance with Proposition 215. Osburn's appeal challenges the constitutionality of federal jurisdiction of the Controlled Substances Act where the manufacture of marijuana for medical purposes was legal under state law.