Creative and inventive individuals who get divorced may be surprised to learn that the products of their creativity are considered part of the asset division process in Illinois. Just as physical property must be assessed and divided, intellectual property must be valued and split between spouses as well. Read on to learn more about how intellectual property is handled in an Illinois divorce, and then call an attorney with experience in high-asset and complex divorce who can help. 

What is Intellectual Property? 

Intellectual property is a term that describes intangible (nonphysical) assets that are owned by a person or a company and cannot be used without the owner’s permission. Intellectual property rights are covered by laws that provide legal protection to products of human creativity, just as real property rights are protected. Examples of intellectual property include:

• Patents, copyrights, and trademarks 

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Generally, when a couple or individual decides to end their marriage, one spouse will file for divorce, and the other spouse will respond. Spouses will spend the remainder of the divorce process negotiating over things like asset division and child custody. However, when one spouse has gone missing, serving divorce papers can be difficult or impossible. Other times, a spouse may simply decide to be uncooperative, refusing to respond to divorce papers or attempt to resolve divorce issues. 

People who want to get divorced but do not know where their spouse is are not doomed to stay stuck in their marriage. There are ways to get divorced, even if your spouse is missing or uncooperative, and an experienced Illinois divorce attorney can help. 

How Does a Missing Spouse Change the Divorce Process? 

Illinois provides an alternative pathway to divorce for people whose spouses are missing. This is called “divorce by publication.” To qualify for a divorce by publication, one spouse must convince a judge that the missing spouse cannot be located, despite making serious efforts to do so. 

People getting divorced in Illinois frequently worry about finances and perhaps never so much as when they are on the cusp of retirement. Pensions, investment plans, and savings accounts are the product of many years’ worth of hard work, sacrifice, and painstaking planning. The prospect of dividing assets in a divorce can be devastating. While a divorce attorney cannot guarantee a perfect outcome, having the help of an experienced firm on your side can help you mitigate the financial impact of divorce on your retirement prospects. Here are three questions to ask yourself as you gather your financial information before the divorce. 

What Will Your Social Security Benefits Be? 

Spouses who have been working their entire lives often have a healthy amount of Social Security waiting for them upon retirement. But for spouses who have worked only a little or not at all, a spouse’s benefits may be the best option. If you have been married for at least 10 years, you may be eligible to receive up to half of your spouse’s benefits. If your ex-spouse plans on collecting based on your work history, your benefits will not be affected. 

How Does Your Retirement Plan Work? 

Not every retirement plan is created equal. For example, military spouses must have been married for at least 10 years before they can claim a portion of their former spouse’s benefits. Other plans have highly specific rules that detail how benefits can be divided, including complex paperwork that must be filled out and submitted correctly. Other plans, like simple 401(k)s, can be divided using a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). Whatever the circumstances around your retirement plan may be, is important to know the specific details before divorce negotiations begin. 

Before your Illinois divorce can begin, you will need to choose the county - or venue - in which you want to file for divorce. Generally speaking, the spouse who files for divorce gets to choose the venue where the divorce will take place. However, the responding spouse can object to the venue and petition for change. If your spouse already filed for divorce and you are worried that the venue may negatively affect you, it is essential to have an experienced Illinois divorce attorney who can help you petition for a change of venue. Here are three reasons you may want a different divorce venue. 

Distance

Sometimes spouses who are getting divorced have already separated households. If one spouse moves to another county and files for divorce there, the distance may be too great to comfortably move back and forth for court dates or mediation sessions. This is especially true if the responding spouse has minor children who need to be cared for during court dates. 

Spouses can petition to change the venue to a county that is equally distant from each partner, the county where the responding spouse lives now, or in the county in which most of the marriage took place. 

Americans' average student loan debt is now nearly $40,000, just $5,000 less than the median individual income. For some students, such as those with graduate degrees in medicine and other highly competitive fields, the cost of an education can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the promise of education and the returns on investment it may bring leads many people to get deeply into student debt, getting out of that debt is not so easy. 

For many married couples, their student loan debt may be their most significant liability. And while a couple may have agreed that one spouse would go to school to pursue greater opportunities, when confronted with the prospect of divorce, the other spouse may suddenly be hesitant to share the responsibility of that debt. So what does an Illinois couple do when they are getting divorced with student loans? 

Are Student Loans Marital Property in Illinois? 

To determine whether both spouses are responsible for paying off student debt, it is necessary to determine whether that debt is marital or personal. If the spouse with the debt accrued all or most of the debt before getting married, the debt will likely remain with that spouse in a divorce.