About The Firm
Experienced Trademark Representation and Guidance.
“Top-quality trademark work.”
(Their words, not ours).
We offer creative and competitive trademark clearance, prosecution, and enforcement services — at rates designed to meet our clients’ needs and expectations.
Our clients and peers know Kelly IP for our exceptional guidance, fierce enforcement, personal service, and competitive rates. As a specialized subset of intellectual property law, trademark and copyright work requires nuanced knowledge, keen instincts, and a passion for creative writing and compelling storytelling.
Uniquely collaborative and relentlessly competitive, our team has decades of experience managing trademark and copyright portfolios for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Our clients span continents and size, from startups and family-owned businesses to Fortune 100 companies. We’ve handled virtually every trademark issue imaginable, across diverse industries ranging from retail and entertainment to technology and manufacturing to pharmaceuticals and transportation.
Our expertise shines in finding creative fixes for difficult situations. And our success is due, in large part, to our extensive litigation experience and sophisticated enforcement and negotiation strategies. Plus, when you get to work with some of the planet’s coolest brands — from content providers for the silver screen to manufacturers of icons parked in your driveway and heard roaring down the highway, to that popular fast-casual restaurant chain that everyone craves — our little area of the law tends to be a lot of fun.
Our Team
01
Conducts, reviews and advises on hundreds of preliminary, full, and design trademark searches every year
02
Applies extensive elite-level experience to large-scale merchandising clearance programs, entertainment marks, and pharmaceutical marks
03
Negotiates and prepares legal trademark and copyright documents, including settlement, coexistence, assignment and licensing agreements
04
Handles complex clearance and infringement opinions
05
Leads enforcement programs for many prominent brand owners
06
Resolves most matters without litigation
Clear. Prosecute. Enforce.
Do it well—and have a good time doing it.
From a company’s idea to the registration of its mark and well on through the enforcement of it, the Kelly IP team is your trademark partner at every step — and stays one step ahead of your competitors and infringers. Here are our core focus areas.
Our opinions and recommendations are thorough and direct. We never hedge. We perform deep research, ask the right questions, and our “second attorney review rule” ensures that two lawyers review every opinion that leaves our inbox before it lands in yours.
- /Global trademark search and clearance
- /Entertainment and publication title search and clearance
- /Character names, likeness and rights
- /Rights of publicity
- /First Amendment issues and IP rights
- /Security interests for IP rights
- /Recording IP registrations with customs
- /Counseling on design patents and rights
Getting a trademark registered begins with an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and related international organizations. It can be a time-consuming, detail-oriented process. We are adept at managing it and excel in bringing our advocacy skills and deep experience to help you “make your mark.”
- /Filing and prosecution of trademark applications
- /Managing worldwide trademark portfolios
- /Recording trademark registrations with customs
- /Filing and prosecution of post registration documents
- /Preparing letters of protest
- /Handling ex-parte appeals from application refusals
Our ongoing monitoring means brand owners stay one step ahead of competitors and infringers (and would-be poachers) that are likely to create market confusion. We enforce marks before federal courts and in front of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in Washington, D.C.
- /Trademark infringement
- /Unfair competition
- /False advertising
- /False designation and origin
- /TTAB proceedings
- /Federal Circuit appeals
- /Copyright infringement
- /Anti-counterfeiting
- /Cybersquatting
- /Enforcement of design patents
We handle copyright work, too, which often goes hand-in-hand with trademark work.
- /Copyright registration
- /Recording registrations with customs
- /Renewal and termination rights
- /Work-for-hire issues and agreements
- /Copyright assignments
- /Acquisition of copyrights
- /Works of joint authorship
- /Permissions to use third-party copyrights
- /International copyright protection
- /Berne Convention rights
Going to bat for brand
owners at the TTAB.
When trademark applications and registrations are challenged — or require challenging — our team of litigators represents brand owners before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Our team — led by a former TTAB judge — has filed and litigated hundreds of cases for prominent brand owners. Our group has extensive experience litigating cases through trial and under accelerated case resolution (ACR) before the TTAB. We have also handled numerous appeals from the TTAB to the Federal Circuit. Our Washington, D.C. location also offers us close proximity to the USPTO and TTAB, headquartered in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.
Federal Trademark Litigation
Creativity. Curiosity.
And a passion for winning.
Many general practice corporate firms have trademark litigators on their bench. But few have a team who have handled trademark litigation every day for the last three decades.
When trademarks are challenged or need enforcement, clients trust the litigators of Kelly IP. Federal trademark litigation often entails high stakes. Cases that go to court and to trial seldom are black-and-white. Winning requires creativity, persuasiveness, and dedication.
It takes attorneys who have the same passion for their clients’ business and brands as the clients themselves. It takes a curious counselor who dives deep and asks every question. It requires constant communication from a hands-on, specialized, passionate team that is dedicated to achieving the best possible results.
It’s a very hands-on, dedicated group of lawyers who love doing this work — really, to the point of obsession.
Stephanie Bald, Founding Partner
Where IP meets First Amendment
Experienced attorneys at the intersection of trademark, freedom of speech, entertainment, and culture.
Protecting creators’ First
Amendment rights.
Where trademark law meets the First Amendment, there is often conflict in titles, names, and other marks. We support the original artists, producers, and companies that entertain and inspire us all, and we give them the resources and power to perform their craft free of consequence or confusion.
High-tech IP law, with
a personal touch.
The web offers endless possibilities for poachers and cyber-squatters, so our Domain Name/Internet IP Counseling and Enforcement team protects your brand online. In addition, we review and register domain names for clients, and represent them in disputes arising from abusive registrations and misuse of similar domain names. We’ve filed hundreds of UDRP and similar domain name complaints, and are adept at protecting domains by working directly with Internet Service Providers for ISP takedowns, demand/cease and desist letters, and other legal actions.
- 01. Domain name strategies and investigations
- 02. Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy
(UDRP) complaints and arbitration proceedings - 03. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
(ACPA) proceedings - 04. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
- 05. Domain name registration, acquisition, and portfolio management
- 06. Internet monitoring for infringements