Design Rights and Trade Dress
On August 11, 2015, CincyIP welcomes Mark Charles, Senior Counsel at The Procter & Gamble Co., to discuss the intersection of design rights and trade dress.
A corporation or inventor with a potentially valuable product will often want to take a multi-level approach to protecting their intellectual property. Rather than rely only on one layer of IP protection, the owner will try to protect the same product with varying forms including design and utility patents, trade dress protection and/or copyright.
Mr. Mark Charles will be discussing the intersection of design rights and trade dress. Mr. Charles will explore the benefits and drawbacks of various design protection schemes, both in the U.S. and abroad, such as design patents, international design registrations, and trade dress. Mark will discuss how overlapping strategies can maximize protection globally. Brief case studies will also be considered, guided by the business and legal framework necessary to maximize protection of design elements.
Speaker Information
Mark Anthony Charles is a Senior Counsel for The Procter & Gamble Company, where he supports the Global Transactions group. He also leads the Global Design Practice Group and the China IP Policy Group and is heavily involved in the Post-Grant Proceedings group within P&G. His responsibilities also include providing legal support for various matters involving Intellectual Property law and policy.
Before joining P&G, Mr. Charles was an associate at the law firm of Pennie & Edmonds. His practice area included patent prosecution, litigation, and transactional matters involving the chemical, mechanical, and electrical arts.
Mr. Charles received both his Juris Doctor and his Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Duke University in 2001. Mr. Charles graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1998, where he recieved his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and a minor in business. Mr. Charles is licensed to practice in Ohio, Virginia, Washington D.C., and before the CAFC.