Practice Overview

Sarah has 19 years of experience practicing law in the field of Intellectual Property, both as an in-house attorney and as an attorney in private practice.  Beginning her career as a patent attorney, for the past 12 years Sarah has focused her practice on assisting clients in adopting, maintaining and enforcing brands.  She has extensive experience providing opinions on the usability and/or registrability of trademarks before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”).  Sarah also manages all phases of U.S. and international trademark portfolio management including searches, availability and registrability opinions, acquisitions, licensing, infringement opinions, and trademark prosecution.  

A significant part of Sarah’s practice involves the enforcement of trademark rights.  Sarah counsels clients about their rights and threats to their brand.  She conducts infringement analyses and protects against trademark infringements by sending cease and desist letters, negotiating settlements, and litigating opposition/cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “TTAB”).

Sarah’s knowledge and experience allows her to offer unique solutions to clients to better protect their brand by using a variety of tools including, but not limited to, trademark, trade dress, design patent and copyright protection.

Representative Experience

  • Litigated and won the second-only case based upon fraud decided by the TTAB since Bose in 2009 (which established a heightened standard for proving fraud). See Fuji Medical Instruments Mfg. Co., Ltd. v. American Crocodile International Group, Inc., Cancellation No. 92062760 (July 28, 2021).  The significance of this case was recognized as being precedential by the TTAB;
     
  • Provided useability and registrability opinions and prosecuted marks for a world-famous Japanese computer gaming company and a world renown Japanese consumer electronics and appliance company;
     
  • Negotiated and settled numerous oppositions and cancellations before the TTAB;
     
  • Successfully cancelled infringing domain names from the Registrar using the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) before the National Arbitration Forum;
     
  • Counseled national toy company on how to protect their proprietary board games and toys using trademark and copyright strategies; and
     
  • Assisted clients with take-downs of infringing and/or counterfeit products on Amazon, Etsy, eBay. Facebook, Instagram, etc.



Bar Admissions
  • Minnesota, 2003

  • United States District Court, District of MN

  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 2005


Education

  • William Mitchell College of Law, St. Paul, MN; 2002, J.D., cum laude
    • Editor, William Mitchell Law Review
  • Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA; 1997, B.S., biology, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa


Professional Associations & Memberships

  • International Trademark Association 

  • Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association