Brand Owners Convene in NY for "Managing the Trademark Asset Lifecycle"

Brand owners and trademark counsel convened in New York this month for the Second Annual World Trademark Review “Managing the Trademark Asset Lifecycle” conference. The conference started with an insightful panel discussion on the strategic management and auditing of trademark portfolios, including insights on tools and techniques for conducting audits and on the importance of cultivating relationships with marketing and business teams and on being nimble and adaptive to changing business objectives and budgetary constraints. I had the pleasure of working on this panel with Charles Chen, Deputy General Counsel of HICKIES, Inc., Shelley Jones, Senior Legal Counsel Trademarks and Brand Enforcement of BlackBerry Ltd., Amanda Quinn, Senior Marketing Properties Specialist of Mars Inc. and Carolina Paschoal, Vice President and IP Counsel of Kate Spade & Company.

The interesting topics covered by the other panels at this event included brand valuation, leveraging brand value, tax and ownership structures, trademark monetization and the risks and opportunities created when brands expire (i.e., “Zombie marks.) A recurring theme throughout the day was the importance of regular communication with other stakeholders at the company to ensure appropriate attention and resources are being devoted to building and protecting a strategic trademark portfolio and how this can facilitate the achievement of business objectives including, importantly, revenue generation.

Visit WTR’s site for more information.