Fostering successful long-term client relationships, Marsha K. Hoover counsels corporations and individuals with respect to trademark rights, copyrights, and rights of privacy and publicity. She assists a wide variety of businesses from insurers to film makers with veteran experience concentrating in trademarks, copyright advice, licensing and litigation.
Recent Client Work:
Represented client in negotiations resulting in the user of a conflicting mark changing its business name.
Oversees international registration and enforcement activities of global entertainment company.
Advised publishing client with respect to e-book distribution agreement.
Representative Experience:
Ms. Hoover has handled legal matters in these areas:
United States and International Trademark clearance and prosecution;
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) proceedings;
Registering and protecting copyrights;
Rights and clearances; public domain and fair use analyses;
Publishing agreements; and
Merchandise licensing.
Background and Credentials:
Ms. Hoover's clients include publishing companies, banks, insurers, owners of hotels and restaurants, not-for-profit associations, television and film producers, religious and educational institutions and web-based enterprises. At the same time, she frequently works directly with individuals who are just beginning their creative careers. Her knowledge of trademark and copyright issues has proven extremely useful in avoiding conflicts with the existing intellectual property rights of others and in dealing with the plethora of issues engendered by the ubiquity of the Internet.
She has considerable experience in copyright and trademark protection for characters portrayed in a variety of media, and in protecting, enforcing or securing intellectual property licensing rights. She works regularly with companies' in-house counsel needing assistance with special intellectual property projects and issues, including pre-acquisition due-diligence inquiries. Ms. Hoover's practice includes representing clients in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, as well as coordinating international trademark registration and enforcement programs.
Ms. Hoover is included in the 2011 inaugural edition of the Martindale-Hubbell® Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers™ as being among the women attorneys who have received the highest possible rating in both legal ability and ethical standards from their peers. Less than 5% of women lawyers have been so recognized with an AV® Preeminent rating by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell.
Marsha began her private practice in commercial litigation, primarily in the field of antitrust, gaining experience in handling complex cases before she established her intellectual property law practice. After law school, she completed a two-year judicial clerkship for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Ms. Hoover earned her J.D. from Northwestern School of Law in 1980 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in communication, also from Northwestern University, in 1977.