News & Articles
2011 Small Business of the Year
FEATURED
We were thrilled just to be nominated amongst the many other fine businesses on whom the same honor was bestowed, but we were overwhelmed at the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce's 2011 Annual Dinner and Awards when we were presented with the award for the 2011 Small Business of the Year. We are privileged to enjoy such a fantastic cadre of clients, community partners and neighbors and are very appreciative of the warm welcome and enthusiastic support we have received by all here in Montgomery County.
Lawyers Giving Back
ABA Journal: Law News Now, February 2012
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James Creekmore featured with Elvis impersonator Craige McKenna as part of a fundraising campaign for United Way.
Click the link below to see the two in Action!
http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/lawyers_giving_back11/Blair Wood: Prepared for a Challenge
NRV Magazine, November/December 2011
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Neatly hanging in her downtown Blacksburg office, Blair Wood has four tailored jackets waiting for an unpredictable day. Her impressive flat-screen desktop display shares space with precisely stacked briefs and documents. Whether it is court, meeting with a client, or attending an event, Wood is ready to tackle the job, even if it means staying at the office all night.Credits: Krisha Chachra, Photos by Bonnie A. Bounds
Trademarks 101: Finch in a Pinch
IPITOME, Summer 2011
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IP Attorney Keith Finch explains the 8 things a small businessperson should know about trademarks.Credit: Doug Waters
Intellectual Property in Focus
IPITOME, Summer 2011
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With the cast set, venue booked, and ads placed, attorney James Creekmore and his team descended on the scene. Months in the making, the Intellectual Property Law Symposium was held February 11, 2011, at Liberty University School of Law in Lychburg, Va.Credit: Doug Waters
IP Profiles Q&A: Poised
IPITOME, Summer 2011
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Blair N.C. Wood has been there, done that. She's traveled the world, worked as a police officer and meth-lab technician, and graduated top of her law-school class--all by 33.Credit: Doug Waters
Smile! It’s For Charity
NRV Current, August 2011
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From an "innocent photo-op" grew a fundraising campaign that wrangled passerby, dogs, Elvis, Bigfoot, and a donation to United Way of Montgomery County, Radford, and Floyd.Credits: The Roanoke Times/New River Current/Mary Hardbarger
Accepting the Challenge
Valley Business Front, August 2011
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Creekmore Law Firm newcomer Blair Wood has made excelling at the unusual a normal part of her cycle.
Forget the pinstripes, the stuffy sentences, the suspicion that not only business, but life, may be measured in “billable hours.”
‘Best-Of’ Lists Have Some Value To Lawyers
Valley Business Front, March 2010
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Knowing which lawyers really are the best can be confusing when there are so many lists telling you who’s who.Those ubiquitous “Best of” lawyers lists magazines are turning out like “Who’s Who” lists of old may have some marketing value.
No More Small Business Sticker Shock
Valley Business Front, October 2009
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Big legal fees are especially scary to small business owners.So Finch is leading Creekmore’s new "Small Business Plan," in which such enterprises can get legal help at a flat rate: an initial fee of $750 and $75 monthly after that.
Fear-Free Legal for Small Business
Blue Ridge Business Journal, August 2009
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If small businesses are the true engines of our nation’s economic growth, perhaps The Creekmore Law Firm is onto something. The Blacksburg-based firm, with another office in Botetourt County, has just launched an unusual marketing strategy to target potential small business clients...e-Business Legal Issues Add a Wrinkle
Valley Business Front, May 2009
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Many concerns are the same as those confronting a brick and mortar business based solely on terra firma, but when building a Web-based company or establishing online commerce as a core component, there are specific legal issues to think about. That's according to attorneys in this region who deal with such matters...When Bigger Isn’t Better
Valley Business Front, October 2008
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James Creekmore, 40, opened the Creekmore Law Firm in Daleville in February of 2006. . . . The worldwide demand for his specialty made Creekmore's move less risky and led him to open a second office last month with two attorneys in Blacksburg.Touchdown Pass to West End Center
Blue Ridge Business Journal, August 2008
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It isn’t often that competing law firms get together to share credit for a good cause—while beating each other’s brains out for sport. But that’s what happened on River’s Edge field in Roanoke in late July.The Creekmore Law Firm Uses Technology to Keep Clients Ahead
Blue Ridge Business Journal, September 2007
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Our clients are migrating more toward business models comprised significantly of Internet-based businesses, remote work forces and a national or even international presence.XDL Group: A Virtual IP Litigation Boutique?
Virginia Lawyers Weekly, December 2007
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A Virtual IP Litigation Boutique? That’s the idea behind the XDL Group, which includes such prominent Virginia lawyers as Wyatt B. Durrette Jr. of DurretteBradshaw and Charles M. Allen of Goodman, Allen & Filletti of Richmond....XDL Group Recognized Among Virginia’s Leaders in the Law 2007
Virginia Lawyers Weekly, September 2007
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A Virtual law firm. Let that sink in for a minute. No office. No jostling for parking spaces. Meetings in real time with colleagues and/or clients across the country over the internet...Law on the Internet: The Next Big Step
Blue Ridge Business Journal, August 2007
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Law on the Internet: The next big step James Creekmore finally had all he wanted of big firm law and he has turned to the 'Net for relief in a new Adventure in Law By Becky Hepler If there can be Internet banking, why not a virtual law firm? Ten years ago, James Creekmore, founder of The Creekmore Law Firm in Daleville, had a chance to see the potential of the Internet. One of his clients...XDL Group: Virtual Law Firm Unites Lawyers from 5 Law Firms
Legal Marketing Technology, August 2007
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“X” is for multi. “D” is for dimensional. “The multidimensional in XDL refers to the group’s diverse legal and technical backgrounds, different geographical locations, and the fact that IP litigation is like a multidimensional chess game in which various strategies and tactics are employed simultaneously to achieve an optimal outcome for the client.” “L” is for litigation...Creekmore Emerges as an Intellectual Property Law Leader
Virginia Business Magazine, December 2003
Intellectual property law is complex and highly competitive, and Roanoke lawyer James Creekmore has been navigating its turbulent waters since he began working at the Woods Rogers law firm in 1996. With the Internet raising constant challenges, this area of law is evolving rapidly. From trademarks to copyrights and patents, Creekmore’s practice puts him in the middle of the whirl.
As chair of the firm’s intellectual practice group, he works with a team of a dozen lawyers that wrestles with all aspects of the field. For the past 18 months, trademark disputes have ballooned. “It’s a reflection of the fact that businesses are recognizing that their product and their brand names are what bring value to the business,” says Creekmore.
“They are taking much more care to protect their trade and brand names.” Opportunities for confusion caused by the Internet abound, sparking many disputes.
As chair of the firm’s intellectual practice group, he works with a team of a dozen lawyers that wrestles with all aspects of the field. For the past 18 months, trademark disputes have ballooned. “It’s a reflection of the fact that businesses are recognizing that their product and their brand names are what bring value to the business,” says Creekmore. “They are taking much more care to protect their trade and brand names.” Opportunities for confusion caused by the Internet abound, sparking many disputes.
One of the best things about doing intellectual property law, Creekmore says, is the facility it gives him with the foundations of business. As a litigator, he spends plenty of time in federal court, but he also focuses on business strategy, helping businesses plan ahead and grow. “How many of their marks and their brands need to be registered, protected, enforced? How can we make sure that their competition is not riding their coattails to success?” These are questions his staff considers, because as Creekmore notes “we bring royalty income to the table. A lot of your bigger companies recognize that, and they have added significant dollars to the bottom line. … We try to be very vigilant.”
The practice is equally divided between litigators and business people. The business counselors are active in registering and filings while litigators spend their time enforcing the paper. Much of the trademark litigation, Creekmore says, gets settled out of court through alternative dispute resolution. Of the 16 active cases his team was handling in late October, none were being pursued in court.
It’s all quite a bit of responsibility for a lawyer just 10 years out of law school. Creekmore, 35, has been practicing as a litigator for seven years. The Chesapeake native received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, before going to law school at the College of William and Mary. Following graduation there in 1993, he clerked for a federal judge in North Carolina for two years before joining Woods Rogers.
Creekmore ex-pects to remain in the intellectual property field. “With the Internet continuing to expand, I don’t see any retreat from intellectual property,” he says. “Domain registration continues to boom, and that’s confusing for a lot of folks.” For instance, companies wrestle with when they can legally use part of another company’s name for fair use or for parody use. “You find that with Web site deals, third-party contractors are prevalent. They are incorporating trademark and copyright. We have seen a lot of clients with contractual disputes who find out they don’t own as much of their Web site as they thought they owned.”
Music is another big area, says Creekmore. The practice represents several songwriters and singers engaged in disputes about their rights to CDs. “The more technology advances,” predicts Creekmore, “the more opportunity there is for intellectual property practitioners.”
