Harold K. Kyle

Attorney At Law

Hal Kyle, founder of the law firm Kyle & Associates in Ventura, California has been practicing law for over 35 years, and primarily focuses his practice on Intellectual Property Law, specializing in U.S. and foreign trademark prosecution, copyright prosecution, license agreements and the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Hal gained his broad experience in intellectual property during his years as Corporate Counsel for Max Factor & Co. and Applause Inc., two companies with demanding intellectual property needs and large portfolios of trademarks and license agreements, including agreements with Disney, Sesame Street, Warner Bros., and LucasFilm properties, as well as numerous sublicense agreements for The California Raisins™ and the Smurfs®.

In 1998, after nearly 20 years as in-house counsel, Hal opened Kyle & Associates. His years as inside counsel made him keenly aware of the intellectual property issues that face businesses of all sizes and types and more importantly he became a specialist in this challenging area of the law. Hal wanted to establish a firm that would provide clients with exceptional personal service and consistent support.

Hal is also a certified mediator and arbitrator. Drawing from his experience as a mediator, Hal works closely with clients to quickly and forcefully address and respond to infringement matters in a straightforward manner to stop such infringements before they become larger issues and without taxing a client’s budget. Hal’s excellent negotiation skills have resulted in the resolution of hundreds of cases without the need for litigation.

Mel Kyle

Paralegal

Mel Kyle has been a certified paralegal for over 30 years. She obtained her post graduate paralegal certificate from the American Bar Association approved UCLA Paralegal Training Program in cooperation with UCLA Law School. Mel specializes in the areas of trademarks, licensing and copyrights. Mel worked for over four years for the nationally recognized law firm Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Mel subsequently worked for six years for the corporate law department of Applause Inc., handling the company’s intellectual property matters including the negotiation of the legal terms and administration of all license agreements.

For the last 20 years Mel has worked at Kyle & Associates on all phases of trademark prosecution from filing to issuance as well as all post-registration requirements. Most recently Mel has managed the trademark portfolio for a large consumer products company whose trademarks, domestic and foreign, numbered in the thousands. The management of this portfolio consisted of reviewing the status of each mark, foreign and domestic, including its ownership and possible need for assignment to the proper business entity/owner and effecting same, assisting with the creation of a database tracking system for the company allowing for in-house trademark management, assisting in the prosecution of new trademark filings as well as post-registration required filings, and performing preliminary screening searches for dozens of trademarks a day for possible addition to the company’s portfolio.

Mel enjoys the area of Intellectual Property Law as it requires paralegal skills that mesh well with her natural abilities of being extremely detail oriented and precise in her practice. The small nature of Kyle & Associates allows her to develop one on one relationships with each and every client resulting in specialized personal service customized to the unique needs of each client.