King & Spalding
Firm overview:
Full-service firm King & Spalding is the preferred choice for huge international brands for both contentious and non-contentious trademark matters. With 24 locations across the globe, its practice takes on high value trademark portfolios and represents clients before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and matters up to the Supreme Court. Its admirable list of clients include household name Coca-Cola, prominent jewellery retailer Sephora, and US multinational home improvement company Home Depot.
Team overview:
Kathleen McCarthy is “really knowledgeable” and “deserves recognition”, say competitors. McCarthy has an impressive background in litigation, markedly acting for Coca Cola in the US District Court of Illinois. The court held Coca-Cola’s trademark ‘Sprite Zero’ had not infringed on applicant Baig’s ‘Naturally Zero’ spring water mark. McCarthy’s prosecution practice includes directing international and domestic trademark clearance programmes and policing online infringement and scams for several clients.
In 2023, the firm brought in first-chair trial lawyer Mary-Olga (Mo) Lovett for its Trial and Global Disputes practice group in Houston. In her career of more than 30 years, Lovett has tried more than 50 cases with more than $100 billion at stake.
Key matters:
- King & Spalding successfully represented the Federal Reserve Banks in an appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. A trademark dispute was initiated by Now-Casting Economics against defendant Economic Alchemy, which filed a counterclaim for trademark infringement as well as a third-party complaint against 12 Federal Reserve Banks. Economic Alchemy provides services related to economic ‘nowcasting’ which attempts to predict present economic conditions.
- After successfully having all the banks except New York dismissed early in the action, K&S secured a decision in favour of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in May 2024.
Clients:
Ancestry.com, Coca-Cola, Federal Reserve Banks, Fritz Hansen, Home Depot, MTU Onsite Energy, Rolex, Sephora, Valerus Field Solutions.
