Holly Pekowsky is Of Counsel to the Sills Cummis & Gross Intellectual Property Practice Group. With over two decades of experience, Ms. Pekowsky’s practice focuses on all aspects of trademark law, including conducting trademark searches to clear marks, prosecuting trademark applications, and strategically managing trademark portfolios, as well as defending and asserting clients’ rights against third parties, including in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and in court, and through Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP) disputes. She uses her encyclopedic knowledge of trademark law and the technicalities, processes, and precedents of the USPTO as the foundation for her singular and can-do approach to protecting and enforcing clients’ trademark rights. She has an unusual grasp of the nuances of the law, and the creativity to successfully challenge the USPTO’s rules as applied to her client’s specific circumstances.
Ms. Pekowsky has also conducted intellectual property due diligence and negotiated related agreements for mergers and acquisitions, including reviewing IP portfolios and IP agreements of the to-be-acquired company.
Ms. Pekowsky has been involved in disputes concerning issues such as the family of marks doctrine, the protectability of color as a trademark, keyword advertising, likelihood of confusion and secondary meaning surveys, and the sale of gray market and reconditioned products. She has represented a diverse range of clients, including luxury fashion brands, restaurateurs, brick and mortar and online retailers, health systems, and sellers of consumer electronics products.
Ms. Pekowsky also counsels clients on trademark and false advertising issues for packaging and marketing materials, provides opinions regarding unfair competition, rights of publicity and copyright law, and negotiates numerous types of agreements, including license agreements, work for hire agreements, and coexistence agreements.