What is a trademark attorney? As the name suggests, this is a licensed attorney who specializes in trademark law. First and foremost, this requires a specialized knowledge of federal, state and frequently foreign and international treaty law relating to trademarks. This is an extremely specialized area of law that a relatively small number of practitioners specialize in. While this is a specific area of law, there are some distinctions that can be made of the attorneys practicing in this area.

For example, some trademark attorneys handle only transactions (meaning they will only do work relating to pre-application advice, the filing of an application and provide licensing advice). Other trademark attorneys handle only litigation (meaning they will only do work relating to trademark infringement, enforcement actions and other adversarial proceedings).

Years ago, when I first started practicing law, intellectual property or IP as it is regularly referred, was not my only practice area. I commonly handled business transactions for clients (giving me a good sense of the true needs of a business). However, I also regularly litigated cases, to the conclusion of a jury trial if necessary.

Many years ago when I transitioned my practice to...