Trademarks and Copyrights

• Counseled a used-car retailer and finance company on the management of the client's U.S. trademark portfolio and serving as the client's counsel of record for matters involving trademark and patent prosecution, intellectual property contracts, and trademark enforcement throughout the U.S.
• Represented a toy maker and licensor in trademark and copyright litigation for the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.
• Served as outside IP counsel for a national bathroom remodeling franchise in matters involving trademark and patent prosecution, IP portfolio management, negotiation and drafting of IP licensing agreements, and nationwide IP enforcement.
• Counseled a national bath shop in a design patent infringement and trade dress infringement case.
• Represented a pizza franchise group in the U.S. Bankruptcy and District Court litigation. The case involved claims against a bankrupt area developer in violation of the client's trademark rights and a covenant not to compete. The case was settled after extensive litigation and the pizza franchise recovered its stores and obtained a full release.
• Represented a television station in a trademark infringement case. The case concerned an issue of first impression in the Third Circuit, namely, whether a trademark infringement claim based on the title of an artistic work is barred by the First Amendment. The court granted the television station's motion to dismiss, finding that Plaintiff's trademark infringement claims were barred by the First Amendment, and dismissed Plaintiff's complaint with prejudice. The court's decision relied heavily on the arguments set forth in the television's brief and our attorney's oral argument. Plaintiff did not appeal and judgment has been entered for the television station. The court's decision is greatly helpful to media companies.
• Represented a large national seller of posters in connection with copyright, trademark and right of publicity issues. Our representation included securing and protecting trademark rights, as well as counselling on copyright and licensing issues. We also successfully defended the company in litigation, obtaining dismissal of copyright infringement claims asserted against it.
• Represents a multinational retail corporation and a number of shoe manufacturers/retailers in an on-going program related to design patent and trademark and copyright issues in the footwear sector. We are advising our clients in order to assess the level of third-party trade dress protection and conduct trademark clearance searches for wording and model names associated with the sale of their footwear and related products. The retail fashion industry has costly issues in this area continuing and we are working to keep our clients out of such issues.

Internet

• Successfully obtained more than 40 domain names for one of the largest retailers in the United States.
• Enforce worldwide the brands of Network Solutions, the industry pioneer in the field of domain name registrations. We enforce the company's brands by stopping infringers who use or attempt to register the client's marks. We have successfully litigated several actions for Network Solutions before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Our most prominent success involved the defense of an action filed by Monster Cable, which is widely known for heavily litigating its claimed rights to the MONSTER mark.