Michael Hall Image

Michael Hall

is a Senior Associate with Kacvinsky Daisak Bluni, PLLC, focusing on U.S. and international trademark clearance, prosecution, contested proceedings before the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, licensing, portfolio management, and general trademark counseling. In particular, Mr. Hall has extensive experience with U.S. trademark prosecution and practice, having begun his career at the USPTO as a trademark examining attorney where he examined thousands of trademark applications and helped revamp the USPTO’s training materials for new attorneys. Mr. Hall left the USPTO to practice with the intellectual property boutique firm Knobbe Martens in California, and later at Venable LLP in Washington, D.C. He has handled the trademark portfolios of clients of all sizes, ranging from individuals with little more than a business plan to two of the world’s most recognizable consumer electronics companies, as well as a leading Hollywood production company and one of the world’s largest financial services companies. For more information, or to contact Mr. Hall, please visit his firm profile page.

Recent Articles by Michael Hall

Parent or Subsidiary? Think Twice Before Opting Not to Have the Parent Own the Trademark

Where a company has a complicated ownership structure – perhaps hundreds or even thousands of legal entities ultimately under a single parent company – the trademark practitioner may colloquially refer to all of these entities collectively as “the client.” But when determining ownership of the trademarks within that corporate structure by the client, careful consideration should be given to exactly which legal entity owns or will own the new mark, especially if the owner is not to be the parent entity within the company’s organizational structure. While the business will naturally have its own thoughts as to which entity should own the mark, the practitioner’s job includes ensuring that decision is formed consistent with the strictures imposed by trademark law.