Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu PC

Number of partners: 23

Fross Zelnick specializes in securing and defending their clients' most valuable assets—their brands, designs, and content. The trademark practice at Fross is unmatched. After five decades, Fross Zelnick has developed a singular trademark practice serving clients in the United States and around the world. The firm has handled every type of trademark issue and dispute, multiple times for multiple companies in multiple jurisdictions, from the simplest registration to the thorniest cross-jurisdictional enforcement action.

Fross Zelnick boasts top-tier copyright experience, with a special emphasis on defending creative works, including character rights, branding assets, and product design. For decades, the firm has assisted clients as they navigate the consequences of new technological frontiers – most recently, digital and virtual performance rights and blockchain-based technologies.

The firm's patent practice focuses exclusively on design patents, with particular expertise in developing multi-pronged strategies combining patent, trademark, and copyright law to protect their clients' prized works.

The breadth and depth of the firm’s practice have attracted a wide range of clients, from celebrated brands, industry leaders, and renowned content providers to disruptive startups and regional companies, all of whom rely on them to protect their unique properties at home and around the world. Many of the largest corporate law firms rely on Fross Zelnick’s advice for unique or hard-to-handle U.S. and international issues.

The firm's capabilities include:

Top-Tier IP Litigation

Fross Zelnick is a renowned trademark and copyright litigation firm, with a reputation for both aggressive advocacy in court and quick, favorable settlements out of court. The firm knows how to fight and win—whether in their backyard or in the most intractable foreign jurisdictions.

Strategic and Nuanced Registration Strategies

Fross Zelnick registers trademarks, copyrights, and design patents with clients' business goals in mind. The firm’s cross-discipline expertise means leveraging multiple legal strategies to shore up strong protections for the most hard-to-defend assets. The firm obtains rights that ward off newcomers and stand up in court. They are one of the most prolific filers of U.S. trademark applications, and their expertise in the finer points of U.S. trademark prosecution is second to none.

Global Portfolio Management

With their unparalleled in-house knowledge of international IP law, Fross Zelnick provides unrivaled advice for global portfolio management, litigations, and transactions around the globe. Their dynamic, carefully selected network of foreign counsel helps them guide U.S. and foreign clients alike as they identify, protect, and defend their rights under copyright, trademark, trade dress, design patent, domain name, and related laws worldwide. The firm's international capabilities are just as robust as their local prowess.

Deal Expertise

Whether a client is buying or selling an entire business or a portion of an intellectual property portfolio, Fross Zelnick has seen it before—and can advise on how to structure the deal to fit the client's goals. The firm conducts due diligence reviews for mergers, acquisitions, and other corporate ventures and formulates efficient worldwide strategies to record the corporate changes against their clients' IP registrations. Many of the country's premier M&A attorneys partner with Fross on the IP components of larger transactions.

Services on the Cutting Edge

Thanks to their more than 50-year legacy, Fross Zelnick has been witness to the birth and evolution of nearly every technology that's central to the modern economy. From in-the-trenches Uniform Dispute Resolution Proceeding litigations against cybersquatters to the rapidly changing intersection of IP rights and blockchain innovations like NFTs, to educating trademark offices around the world on new technological intersections, the firm is helping clients successfully steer through uncharted waters and prepare for what's to come.

Protection of Celebrities and Cherished Characters

From Batman to Harry Potter, Fross protects famous characters through sophisticated copyright and trademark protection strategies and enforcement against infringers. They have also retrieved numerous infringing trademarks and domain names for celebrities and litigate high-profile, right-of-publicity cases involving the unauthorized use of well-known names and likenesses, all within a quickly evolving legal landscape.

Combating Counterfeiting

The firm has developed sophisticated and cost-effective enforcement programs for preventing the importation, sale, and distribution of infringing or counterfeit products. Their experience is capacious, including apparel, footwear, cosmetics, jewelry, and luxury goods products. Included in these programs is the recordal of relevant intellectual property rights with Customs in the United States and abroad.

Key Contacts

Ana Padovani (Director of Marketing & Business Development), Leo Kittay (US Litigation), Laura Popp-Rosenberg (US Litigation), Nadine Jacobson (International Counseling, Prosecution & Litigation), James Weinberger (US Litigation).