The following is an edited video transcript. Watch the full video below.
After more than 25 years working in the field of trademarks, one thing is very clear to me: there is always more to learn.
Trademark law, USPTO procedures, technology, brand building, and the ways businesses use trademarks continue to evolve. Experience is tremendously valuable, but experience alone is not enough. Staying current matters too.
That is why continuing to learn has always been an important part of my trademark practice.
Over the years, I have attended, spoken at, moderated, and helped organize many trademark conferences and programs. But conferences are only one part of how I continue learning.
How Does a Trademark Attorney Stay Current?
I focus on five things:
- Learning from past trademark matters
- Attending trademark conferences and educational programs
- Participating in trademark organizations
- Following USPTO developments
- Teaching and mentoring others
Each contributes something different.
1. Learning From Thousands of Trademark Matters
One of my greatest educational resources is more than 25 years of trademark work itself.
Our firm has now helped clients obtain more than 5,000 trademark registrations. Along the way, we have handled thousands of USPTO Office Actions, responses, arguments, filing issues, and other trademark matters.
Every matter adds to that body of experience.
When an argument works, we learn from it. When the USPTO raises a new issue, we study it. When an unusual fact pattern appears, it becomes part of the experience we can draw from the next time we encounter something similar.
We also maintain resources from prior matters, including useful arguments, research, evidence, and approaches.
Of course, no two trademark matters are exactly alike. Past work should never simply be copied into a new situation. But a deep body of experience can help identify issues, strategies, and questions more efficiently.
In trademark law, experience can become a library of lessons.
2. Attending Trademark Conferences and Educational Programs
I have always placed a high value on conferences and continuing education.
I attend programs devoted specifically to trademarks, as well as programs about law practice, technology, business, and industries that are important to our clients.
Sometimes I attend simply to listen and learn.
Other times I speak, moderate a panel, lead a discussion, or help organize a program.
Each role provides a different perspective. A presentation may highlight a new USPTO development. A panel discussion may reveal how other experienced trademark professionals are approaching an issue. And an informal conversation between sessions can sometimes be just as educational as the formal program.
Staying connected to what others in the trademark field are seeing and discussing helps keep my knowledge from becoming static.
3. Participating in Trademark Organizations
Professional organizations are another important source of continuing education.
Participating in committees and trademark-focused organizations creates opportunities to work with and learn from colleagues who encounter different clients, industries, cases, and trademark issues.
Those conversations are valuable because no individual practitioner sees everything.
Being involved also helps me stay aware of developments affecting trademark owners and practitioners, including changes in USPTO procedures, important decisions, emerging issues, and proposals that could affect trademark practice.
Learning from knowledgeable colleagues has been an important part of my professional growth throughout my career.
4. Following USPTO Developments Closely
My connection to the United States Patent and Trademark Office goes back to the beginning of my career, when I worked there as a trademark examiner.
Today, I continue to follow USPTO developments closely.
That includes reviewing USPTO announcements and guidance, attending public programs and meetings when appropriate, studying procedural changes, and keeping track of developments that may affect trademark applications and registrations.
Being located in Northern Virginia also puts our firm close to the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia.
But staying connected to the USPTO is about much more than geography. The important part is paying attention.
USPTO fees, forms, examination procedures, technology, deadlines, and policies can change. When they do, trademark practitioners need to understand not only what changed, but what those changes may mean in practice for trademark owners.
5. Teaching and Mentoring Others
One of the best ways I have found to keep learning is to teach.
Over the years, I have worked with law students, interns, and mentees interested in trademarks.
Mentoring may sound like a one-way transfer of knowledge, but that has never been my experience.
Students ask good questions.
Sometimes a question forces me to explain a familiar trademark principle in a completely different way. Sometimes it makes me revisit why a particular rule works the way it does. And sometimes a student approaches an issue from an angle I had not considered.
Teaching requires you to understand a subject well enough to make it clear to someone else.
That process keeps me thinking, learning, and challenging my own assumptions.
Why Continued Learning Matters in Trademark Law
Experience matters when choosing a trademark professional.
But another useful question is: How does that professional continue learning?
Trademark law does not stand still. Businesses change. Technology changes. Marketing changes. USPTO practices and procedures change. New trademark decisions provide additional guidance.
For me, staying current is part of serving trademark clients well.
More than 25 years of experience provides an important foundation. Continuing to learn helps make sure that experience continues to grow.
Questions to Ask a Trademark Attorney About Their Experience
If you are evaluating trademark counsel, consider asking:
- How much of their practice is devoted to trademarks?
- How many trademark applications and registrations have they handled?
- How do they stay current with USPTO developments?
- Do they regularly attend or participate in trademark educational programs?
- Are they active in trademark organizations?
- Do they teach, write, speak, or otherwise contribute to trademark education?
- How do they apply lessons from prior trademark matters to new ones?
Years of experience are meaningful. What someone continues to do with those years matters too.
Still Learning After More Than 25 Years
One of the things I enjoy most about working with trademarks is that there is always another issue to study, another business to learn about, another development to follow, or another perspective to consider.
That was true when I began working with trademarks in the 1990s.
It remains true today.
How do you stay current in your business or industry? And when you hire an experienced professional, do you ask how they continue learning?
