Trademark

My name is Lindsey M. Straus and I have been practicing law for forty-two years, primarily as a business and commercial litigator, but for the last 16 years as a lawyer in general practice on Cape Cod, with an emphasis on trademark, civil litigation, and estates and trusts. I pride myself on being an attentive and responsive advocate for my clients, including members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Contact me to arrange a consultation.

With a background in biochemistry, economics, and sociology, Mr. Greenberg serves as chairman of the Montgomery County Maryland Bar Association’s Intellectual Property and Technology Law Section, as well as board member for the Maryland Intellectual Property Legal Resource Center — a legal center for small, start-up businesses. Mr. Greenberg also educates other attorneys as a Continuing Legal Education lecturer for the Montgomery County Bar Association. For future attorneys, Mr. Greenberg has been an annual guest speaker at the American University Law School, and currently is an annual guest speaker at DePaul University Law School.

Simran Sekhon is a practicing lawyer in the state of California.

Thomas Howard is an experienced trial lawyer that handles intellectual property litigation nationwide, including copyright, trademark, trade secret and patent litigation, as well as complex civil litigation, including breach of contract, interference with contract, breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, fraud and fraudulent transfer of assets. Attorney Howard frequently deals with combined elements of intellectual property and commercial litigation in the cases that he handles, and is very experienced at dealing with highly complex litigation. In addition to representing clients involved in litigation, attorney Howard frequently negotiates and drafts intellectual property-related agreements, including license agreements, nondisclosure agreements and assignment agreements. Attorney Howard also files trademarks and copyrights on the behalf of clients in order to protect their intellectual property rights, and frequently represents clients in trademark disputes conducted before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), including opposition proceedings and petitions to cancel. Finally, Attorney Howard regularly represents clients in Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Proceedings (UDRP) in order to assist when disputes arise over the ownership of a domain name. Clients Thomas P. Howard has represented hundreds of corporate and individual clients over the course of his practice. He has been sole or joint counsel in the trial of numerous cases in federal and/or state courts in multiple states. Among Attorney Howard's clients have been a number of parties interested in complex commercial litigation, including contractual disputes and business breakups, as well as parties interested in protecting their intellectual property rights.

Grant’s Law Firm is uniquely positioned to advise individuals, start-ups and small business clients, to offer them premium, individualized legal services without a premium price. We use advanced office techniques and technologies to reduce staffing needs and employ other cost-saving measures to reduce our overhead. When you need a practitioner with a very specialized focus, we retain experienced colleagues having that particular expertise on a contract basis. Thus, our clients receive large firm, top-notch legal advice, but at reasonable small firm prices. The cornerstone of our success is the quality relationships that we maintain with clients. Grant’s Law Firm can help you form and file your business structure from start to finish, whether you have selected a corporation, a limited liability company (LLC), or a partnership. We recognize that business owners are not only concerned with the everyday operations of their business, but with also having to prepare for its future. We are dedicated to providing hands-on, client-focused service to the people and businesses of Riverside County, Orange County, and Los Angeles County.

Rita concentrates her practice in intellectual property including patent, trademark, copyright, unfair competition, and trade secret counseling, prosecution, licensing and litigation. Ms. Chipperson’s patent practice includes business method, electrical, mechanical, Internet, and software patents. She has experience preparing and prosecuting patent applications, assessing business potential for existing patents and patent portfolios, preparing infringement, patentability, and validity analyses, licensing, and litigating for clients involving a wide variety of industries and technologies including artificial spinal disks; automation systems; biological and chemical contaminant detection systems; broadband devices; call logging systems; call processing systems; coaxial integrated test sockets; communication systems; data compression; electronic textbooks; KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switching; information technology systems; integrated audiotext internet advertisement services; multi-party telephone control systems; portable multi-function (facsimile, print, copy, and scan) machines; powder coating generation via electron beam charging; power supply modulation based upon instantaneous microprocessor demand; REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits); shrinkable high voltage termination systems; telephone data organization systems; telephonic-interface statistical analysis; tranching mortgage-backed securities; variable inductors; virtual private networks; voice-data telephonic interface; wireless recording systems; and XML (extensible markup language).Ms. Chipperson also has experience counseling clients regarding selection of names, domain names, logos, and slogans with an aim of achieving state, U.S., and/or international trademark registration and/or avoiding trademark infringement including performance and analysis of trademark searches and preparation and prosecution of trademark applications. She also has experience negotiating trademark settlement agreements and representing clients accused of trademark infringement. Additionally, she has experience in trademark cancellation and opposition proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB).Before entering the practice of law, Ms. Chipperson held consulting and design engineer positions with Johnson Controls, Inc. and Cosentini Associates, where she was responsible for energy and construction consulting including contract negotiations, energy analysis and automation system design. An entrepreneur, Ms. Chipperson founded and was president of ProActive Systems, Inc., an energy and construction consulting firm based in New Jersey that provided domestic and international contract negotiations, energy analysis and automation system design.Prior to starting her own practice, Ms. Chipperson practiced intellectual property law with Ward & Olivo (in both NY and NJ). Ms. Chipperson also served as Of Counsel to Flaster Greenberg. Ms. Chipperson is a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association; the John J. Gibbons American Inn of Court for Intellectual Property Law, the Morris County Bar Association, the Morris County Chamber of Commerce, New Jersey State Bar Association, New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners, and the Venture Association of New Jersey.

I am an experienced intellectual property attorney who has filed and prosecuted many U.S. and PCT/foreign patent applications and U.S. trademark applications. With regard to the patent field, I have drafted many patent applications; responses to Office Actions; validity/invalidity, infringement/non-infringement and freedom-to-operate opinions; and appeal briefs and Request for Reexamination in the mechanical, biochemical, biotechnology, chemical, pharmaceutical, medical device, and business method arts.

Mr. Gibson is one of the premier business and intellectual property attorneys practicing in Las Vegas. Not only is Mr. Gibson one of the most experienced attorneys in Nevada practicing in intellectual property and business areas, Mr. Gibson’s practice in Tokyo with one of the nation’s largest law firms as well as in Chicago with a major, international Chicago-based law firm provides a level of experience very few, if any, attorneys in Las Vegas can claim is comparable. Indeed, Mr. Gibson’s experience as an attorney spans nearly twenty-five years and is international in scope. Ranging from years of in-country practice experience in Japan to years of practice in his hometown of Chicago, Mr. Gibson’s experience is hardly only Nevada-based. That having been said, Mr. Gibson’s experience spanning well over a decade as an attorney in Las Vegas has made him well aware of the unique issues faced by companies doing business in or with respect to Nevada. Mr. Gibson focuses his practice in the areas of intellectual property and representation of business clients with respect to contracts, entity formation and commercial litigation. With respect to intellectual property, Mr. Gibson has counseled clients with respect to thousands of trademarks and service marks, has prosecuted hundreds of trademarks to registration and has engaged in numerous trademark litigation cases. Mr. Gibson also drafted hundreds of contracts involving intellectual property assets, protecting the full range of such assets, such as patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyrights and other intangible assets. Mr. Gibson has also been, and continues to be, the primary attorney in a range of cases involving disputes regarding patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, trade secret infringement and the misappropriation of other intangible assets. Mr. Gibson’s representation has included some of Nevada’s largest companies and through the years, his representation has included some of the world’s largest companies. Indeed, Mr. Gibson feels very fortunate to have maintained representation relationships with large media companies, large gaming/casino companies, large software development companies and a range of companies in a wide array of industries. Mr. Gibson’s client relationships range across the country and around the world.

Deena R. Merlen is a Partner at the firm. She serves clients at both our New York and Stamford offices and heads the Connecticut practice. Her practice areas include intellectual property, employment and labor law, media and entertainment, general business law, commercial transactions and dispute resolution. In her employment practice, Ms. Merlen is a trusted “go to” problem solver and counsel to individuals, established name brand companies and startups alike. She has extensive experience representing clients in matters including general counseling, discrimination actions, mediations and dispute resolution, investigations by federal or state agencies, as well as wage and hour claims and other labor law matters. She also advises on and regularly negotiates employment and separation agreements, independent contractor arrangements and other services-related arrangements. Ms. Merlen also counsels clients on employment and business matters in response to a crisis or other unexpected business impact, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting business closures, including continuity plans, employee furloughs, reductions in force and other critical measures. In her intellectual property practice, Ms. Merlen helps her clients with the development, acquisition and protection of their valuable brands and other vital intellectual property assets. She manages and grows trademark portfolios in the U.S. and internationally; negotiates licensing, assignment, distribution and branding agreements; prosecutes trademark and copyright registrations; enforces intellectual property rights; and provides strategic counsel to safeguard brand platforms and expand the value of her clients’ intellectual property assets. Ms. Merlen’s media practice encompasses the development and protection of creative works in the fields of music, film, television, theatre, publishing, literary arts, performing arts, design and technology. She ran her own business in the entertainment industry for over a decade and brings that business experience and acumen to her legal practice. In addition, Ms. Merlen provides general business counsel and represents clients in company and transactional matters such as partnerships, joint ventures, licensing arrangements, the purchase or sale of businesses, and a wide range of other corporate matters, including company formation, capitalization and governance, compliance and contracts. Representative clients include technology companies, schools and other academic institutions, personal care and beauty companies, fashion and design companies, media, arts and entertainment companies, wholesalers, retailers and more. Prior to her work with RPJ, Ms. Merlen served as Law Clerk to The Honorable Roger J. Miner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, after which she joined Debevoise & Plimpton, where she practiced for over five years in the areas of corporate law and intellectual property. Ms. Merlen is admitted to practice in Connecticut and New York.

JOHN R. ROSS III was born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1965. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the United States Naval Academy in 1988. Upon graduation, John spent six years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. In 1993, while still in the Navy and on shore duty, Mr. Ross entered law school at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, CA, and later graduated in 1996. While in the Navy, Mr. Ross served as an officer onboard two destroyers deployed to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf. After successful completion of the two sea tours, Mr. Ross reported to shore duty at Fleet Combat Training Center Pacific (FCTCPac) in Point Loma, CA. Mr. Ross continues to live in the San Diego area with his wife, Celina Ross (née Romero), and their four children. Mr. Ross first began working with his father at Ross Patent Law Office as a law clerk in 1995 while still attending law school, and later became a partner. As a patent attorney with several years of experience, Mr. Ross has helped many clients obtain patent protection in a variety of practice areas, including many patents covering the electrical and mechanical areas of practice. In addition, Mr. Ross has successfully obtained trademark and servicemark protection for his clients. Mr. Ross is a member of the California State Bar, San Diego County and American Bar Associations, and is registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office.