Susan Smith

Susan A. Smith is an experienced intellectual property counselor and litigator who advises some of the world’s leading brands on all phases of trademark representation. Susan has served as trademark counsel to household-name brands such as Apple, Walmart, Steve Madden, Volkswagen, Audi, Dish Networks, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. She advises clients on trademark clearance and opinions, applications, and registration, as well as rebranding, management of foreign trademark portfolios, enforcement matters, Internet takedowns and domain name enforcement (including UDRP actions), trademark licensing and transactions, and brand protection/anti-counterfeiting. She litigates trademark matters in federal courts across the country and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and the International Trade Commission (ITC). Susan also handles patent litigation in federal courts and before the ITC. She is experienced in motions practice, discovery, claim construction, trial, and appeal. Susan has successfully litigated against non-practicing entities, winning dismissal of complaints and summary judgments, orders of transfer to the client's jurisdiction, favorable claim construction rulings, and stays of litigation. World Trademark Review 1000 has honored Susan as a leading lawyer in the areas of “enforcement & litigation” and “prosecution & strategy” (2015, 2017-2020). Susan has also been recognized by The US Legal 500 in the areas of “Intellectual Property – Trademarks: litigation” (2013, 2016-2020), “Intellectual Property – Trademarks: non-contentious” (2014-2020) and Patent Litigation: Full Coverage (2018). Susan was named one of D.C.’s “Patent Stars” and “Trademark Stars” (2016-2020) and one of the “Top 250 Women in IP” by Managing Intellectual Property.