Photo of Deirdre Long Absolonne

Nonprofit organizations and brand owners trust Deirdre Long Absolonne as outside general counsel dedicated to advancing their mission while mitigating risk. Deirdre drafts and negotiates key contracts and advises on corporate governance, intellectual property, compliance, policy, and other matters, teaming with clients and colleagues to provide holistic support.

Deirdre represents charitable, religious, and social service organizations; foundations; health care and educational institutions; and other tax-exempt entities. She has significant experience in intellectual property matters, including trademark registrations, copyright issues, trademark licensing, and the enforcement of trademark rights, particularly enforcement challenges and licensing opportunities that arise from famous marks. Her experience includes trademark matters for clients across industries, including financial services, medical devices, consumer products, fashion, and technology. She also counsels clients with respect to technology-related issues and transactions.

Deirdre is a member of the New York City Bar Association Nonprofit Organizations Committee and served on Crowell’s Diversity Council from 2019 – 2023.

 

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) hit the scene in 2017 with CryptoKitties, a game on the Ethereum blockchain for buying, selling, and breeding digital cats. Clearly, CryptoKitties represents a humble start for NFTs, the technology that has since captured astonishing public and media attention. More recent NFTs—like the NFT-based digital artwork by Beeple that sold at Christie’s for $69 million last month—demonstrate the rising importance of these novel digital assets.

Each NFT is a one-of-a-kind digital information file typically associated with a digital image, like an artwork, video, gif, tweet, or even event ticket. At least in theory, NFTs can also be created for physical objects, a possibility just beginning to gain meaningful attention.

Where associated with a digital image, the NFT does not generally contain the image but functions like an integrated smart contract with a link to the image file. This smart contract uses blockchain technology to track changes in ownership and affirm authenticity, much like a digital provenance. NFTs also contain a feature that can disseminate royalties whenever the NFT is sold, exemplifying the design flexibility and diverse functionality of these assets.

NFTs are a new form of non-tangible property with substantial implications in the art, entertainment, fashion, and marketing/advertising realms. Individuals and businesses operating in these spaces should carefully consider the merits of NFT platform or portfolio ownership and should anticipate new applications of and perhaps changes to existing bodies of law, like copyright and false advertising, that will address NFT issues.
Continue Reading NFT Risks and Opportunities in the IP, Advertising, and Brand Management Spaces

Under a new rule that became effective August 3, 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) requires all foreign-domiciled trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to a trademark proceeding to be represented by an attorney who is licensed to practice law in the United States. This requirement applies to any entity with a principal

These boots were made for walkin’– no not your ugg boots, my UGG® boots.

On May 10, 2019, an eight-person jury in Illinois federal court found Sydney-based company Australian Leather Ltd. and owner Adnan Oygur liable for willful infringement of the “UGG” trademark (U.S. Reg. No. 3,050,925), registered to Deckers Outdoor Corporation since 2005.

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