Dyan Finguerra-DuCharme, a member of Pryor Cashman’s Intellectual Property, Litigation, Digital Media and Media & Entertainment Groups, authored the Thomson CompuMark White Paper, “To Oppose or Not to Oppose? Six Strategies for Policing Brands in the Information Age” which appeared in the May 2016 issue of Thomson CompuMark.

In this white paper, Dyan discusses the challenges of policing trademarks in the 21st century and the effects of how introducing new brands can cause trademark conflicts. She explains the importance of brand owners policing their marks by preserving their trademark rights. “Having important brands on a trademark watch is easy and cost-effective,” she says, noting that she recommends receiving watch notices when a new application is filed and when the application is published. “That way, if you see a potentially infringing trademark, you can send a demand letter before the mark is even published. You can nip it in the bud before there’s a product in play,” she notes, adding that sometimes she also sends a letter of protest to the PTO to alert examiners to her client’s prior rights.