Trademark Law Workshop

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law's Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center will conduct a workshop on trademark law. The purpose of the workshop will be to help founders both analyze the risks of potential trademark infringement suits by third parties as well as how to best protect the company's own trademark rights in its brand names. We will discuss how to conduct a trademark search to identify other company's existing trademark rights in a proposed mark. We will then discuss how to determine the strength of a proposed trademark and how best to protect trademark rights on a federal level.

Key Takeaways:

Why is it important to register your trademarks with the USPTO?
How is a trademark different from other forms of intellectual property (i.e. patents)?
What factors contribute to the strength of a trademark?
How to evaluate potential infringement risks from third parties?

About the Speaker:

Esther Barron, Director of the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center (DPELC), is very involved with the Chicagoland entrepreneurial community, working closely with many of the incubators as a mentor and legal advisor. She regularly conducts legal workshops at the Chicago Fashion Incubator and along with her students represents many of the emerging designers. She is committed to ensuring the Entrepreneurship Center plays an integral role in Chicago entrepreneurship and that her students have the opportunity to advise the startups and new ventures fueling the entrepreneurial landscape. Barron exercised her own entrepreneurial passion and co-founded a start-up handbag company, Elezar, LLC, targeting high-end boutiques and department stores. Elezar bags are currently sold throughout the country, have been featured in many national magazines and are carried by several celebrities.

The Illinois Small Business Development Center and Illinois Small Business Development Center International Trade Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, and the Industrial Council of Nearwest Chicago (ICNC). Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Please contact the center at (312)433-2373 or (312)433-7656.