Linda K. McLeod

Partner

Linda McLeod focuses on litigation before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the courts, trademark clearance and prosecution, and client counseling.

During her ten-year career at the USPTO, Ms. McLeod gained significant experience serving as administrative trademark judge (ATJ) and interlocutory attorney at the TTAB, and examining attorney for the USPTO. As an ATJ, she presided over opposition and cancellation inter partes proceedings and ex parte appeals from USPTO decisions. She sat on panels that decided cases involving a variety of trademarks, including product configurations, color trademarks, and domain names. During her five years as an interlocutory attorney, she authored numerous decisions on complicated procedural motions that are published as citable precedents and reviewed in legal journals.

Before joining the TTAB, Ms. McLeod acquired extensive knowledge of trademark prosecution as an examining attorney for the USPTO, where she issued agency decisions on statutory and procedural issues concerning U.S. trademark applications. She also argued numerous ex parte appeals before the TTAB.

Highlights

Gap (Apparel) LLC v. Gap One Enterprises, LLC, (TTAB). Prevailed in opposition against GAP ONE mark for general merchandising services, namely, marketing on ground of likelihood of confusion with GAP marks for retail store services and clothing; achieved ruling that GAP trademarks are famous and thus entitled to a broad scope of protection.
Starbucks Coffee Company v. Ruben S. Marshall, (TTAB). Successfully opposed LESSBUCKS COFFEE for coffee, tea, coffee and tea-based beverages, and related retail store services based on a likelihood of confusion with the famous STARBUCKS and STARBUCKS COFFEE trademarks; achieved ruling that STARBUCKS is truly a famous trademark with extensive public recognition and renown.
H-D Michigan v. 3222381, Canada, Inc., (TTAB). Prevailed in likelihood of confusion case involving Harley-Davidson's SCREAMIN' EAGLE line of motorcycle products, clothing, and accessories.
Novo Nordisk A/S v. Innoject, Inc., (TTAB). Successfully challenged application to register the mark INNOJECT for "medical syringes" based on the registered mark INNOLET for "medical disposable hypodermic syringes."
Harley-Davidson Motor Co. v. Honda Motor Co., (TTAB). Successfully argued that the mark STREETFIGHTER was generic for a type of motorcycle.
Celestica North America Inc v. CCC Mobil Oy, (TTAB). Successfully opposed an application for the mark CELESTA for software for "smart phones, PDAs, and PCs to provide communications in digital cellular networks and local data management features" based on the mark CELESTICA for memory cards and power supplies.
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (member, Trademark Public Advisory Committee, appointed by the secretary of commerce, 2011-2014).

Professional Recognition

Ranked among top D.C. trademark lawyers for contentious and non-contentious work by World Trademark Review 1000, 2011.
Ranked among top U.S. business lawyers in Legal Media Group's Guide to the World's Leading Women in Business Law, 2010; and among the top U.S. trademark lawyers in the Guide to the World's Leading Trademark Law Practitioners, 2006, 2008, 2010.
Consistently listed in The International Who's Who of Trademark Lawyers and Who's Who Legal: USA—Trademarks since 2009.

Professional Activities

International Trademark Association
American Intellectual Property Law Association (Inter Partes of Trademark-Relations with the USPTO Committee vice chair, 2006-2009)
Federal Circuit Bar Association
National LGBT Bar Association
University of Akron School of Law, Board Member, IP Advisory Council

Select Publications

Coauthor. "On the Pretrial Management Trail with Blackhorse," Law360, Aug. 17, 2011.
Coauthor. "Ethical Issues in U.S. Trademark Prosecution and TTAB Practice," The John Marshall Review of Intellectual Property Law, Winter 2010-2011.
Coauthor. "U.S. Bose Decision - Effects on Madrid System Users," WIPO Magazine, June 2010.
Coauthor. "Navigating the TTAB's New Rules: A Survey of Cases Under the New Rules and Their Impact on TTAB Practice and Procedure," AIPLA Quarterly Journal, Winter 2010.
Coauthor. "Recent TTAB Decisions Highlight Challenges of Pleading and Proving Fraud after Bose," The Intellectual Property Strategist, Feb. 2010.
Coauthor. "Motion Practice," Chapter 4 in A Legal Strategist's Guide to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Practice, 2010.
Coauthor. "Embracing Marketplace Realities: Rediscovering Section 18 of the Lanham Act on the Twentieth Anniversary of Its Revival," The Trademark Reporter, Nov./Dec. 2009.
Coauthor. "Accelerated Case Resolution: Expedited Litigation for Less Before the TTAB," BNA's Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal, Nov. 27, 2009.
Coauthor. "U.S. TTAB Bars Registration of the Mark A-HOLE PATROL on the Ground that the Mark Is Immoral or Scandalous," Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, June 2009.
Coauthor. "The Federal Circuit Hears Oral Arguments in In re Bose Corp.: Will the 'Knew or Should Have Known' Standard Live On?," BNA's Patent, Trademark & Copyright, May 29, 2009.

Bar and Court Admissions

Education