Terry Middlebrook

Terry Middlebrook is a senior counsel in Holland & Knight's Los Angeles office. Ms. Middlebrook practices primarily in the field of intellectual property, with a focus on trademark and copyright protection, enforcement, rights of privacy and publicity, as well as commercial transactions relating to intellectual properties. She handles prosecution, oppositions, cancellations and invalidation actions around the world and assists in domestic litigation, as well as transactional matters, general counseling and dispute avoidance. Her clients are from diverse fields, including manufacturing, music, worldwide charitable nonprofit entities, gaming, publishing, construction, transportation, clothing, foods, film and television, and the fine arts.

Ms. Middlebrook is broadly experienced in federal, state and international trademark searching, monitoring, registration, worldwide portfolio management and worldwide rights enforcement through negotiation and litigation. She has successfully established well-known mark rights under Article 6 bis of the Paris Convention, as well as protected name rights for celebrities, in jurisdictions in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Oceania and Africa. She assists clients in developing and implementing trademark protection strategies around the world, supervising foreign admitted counsel.

In the area of copyrights, Ms. Middlebrook deals regularly with music licensing issues, disputes and rights claims related to both pre- and post-1978 United States copyrights, and rights under foreign laws, working with foreign counsel.

Ms. Middlebrook is regularly consulted by clients on quick turnaround issues, such as the need for immediate feedback on the risk of trademark or copyright infringement, license breadth construction, contract interpretation, conveyances and the applicability of doctrines, such as fair use and the defense of parody.

In addition, Ms. Middlebrook is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics, including international trademark protection strategies, and in-house presentations to marketing and legal departments on subjects such as the use and abuse of non-disclosure agreements, the basics of trademark selection and avoiding copyright infringement issues.