Trina A. Longo

Trina Longo has over twenty years of experience counseling clients on domestic and global trademark and brand protection issues as well as copyright issues. Ms. Longo’s trademark practice focuses on the creation, clearance, and registration of marks, both in the United States and worldwide. Knowing that every client has unique brand identities and business goals, Ms. Longo provides practical, well-planned advice in managing worldwide trademark portfolios of all sizes. For example, Ms. Longo has significant experience in devising client-specific worldwide trademark clearance and application filing strategies.

On the transactional side, Ms. Longo prepares and prosecutes U.S. trademark applications, including extensions of protection of International Registrations to the U.S. Additionally, Ms. Longo represents clients before the United States Patent and Trademark Office and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) in ex parte appeals. Representing both U.S. and non-U.S. based clients, Ms. Longo secures protection for her clients’ marks in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Further, Ms. Longo counsels clients on proper trademark marking and usage, and drafts corporate trademark usage and marking guidelines. Throughout her career, Ms. Longo has coordinated and managed the worldwide recordation of trademark assignments and other changes in trademark ownership.  Ms. Longo also negotiates and drafts trademark license agreements.

On the enforcement side, Ms. Longo has substantial experience providing trademark infringement opinions, sending cease and desist letters, negotiating settlement agreements, and resolving domain name and other internet-related conflicts. She represents clients in various proceedings, including opposition and cancellation proceedings before the TTAB and Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) domain name arbitration proceedings. Ms. Longo also has experience litigating trademark infringement, dilution, unfair competition, false advertising, and copyright infringement claims in U.S. federal district courts. Leveraging her many well-established relationships with a diverse network of foreign counsel, Ms. Longo oversees policing and opposition matters in foreign jurisdictions.

Equally versed in Copyright Law, Ms. Longo routinely counsels clients on a full range of copyright issues, including copyright protection, registration, and enforcement. She prepares and files Copyright Applications with the U.S. Copyright Office, and utilizes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Take Down provisions to remove infringing materials from the Internet. Additionally, she pursues and defends copyright infringement claims in U.S. federal district court on behalf of her clients.

Ms. Longo has also been involved in academia, having served as an Adjunct Professor of Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.

Prior to joining Schiffrin & Longo, P.C., Ms. Longo was an attorney at one of the largest global intellectual property law firms. At her prior firm, Ms. Longo represented clients of all sizes, including Fortune 500 companies, in the apparel, automobile, pharmaceutical, data management, beverage, personal care, consumer products, information services, and financial services industries, among others.

Representative Work Highlights

  1. Prosecution of Non-traditional marks – successfully obtained a U.S. trademark registration on behalf of a famous European automaker for the product configuration of an automobile;
  2. Audits and Filing Programs – Conducted trademark audits and designed and implemented U.S. and international trademark filing strategies to ensure comprehensive trademark protection on behalf of clients;
  3. U.S. and Global Trademark Portfolio Management – managed U.S. and worldwide trademark portfolios on behalf of several clients, including a pharmaceutical company;
  4. Letters of Protest – drafted and filed Letters of Protest on behalf of a client, which were granted by The United States Patent and Trademark Office. This action succeeded in preventing a generic term widely used in the automobile industry from being registered to one entity;
  5. Enforcement – Designed and implemented enforcement strategies on behalf of trademark and copyright clients;
  6. Copyright Infringement – successfully used Take Down Provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to remove infringing materials from websites.

Bar Admissions

  • District of Columbia
  • Virginia

Courts & Adjudicative Bodies

  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
  • Supreme Court of Virginia
  • D.C. Court of Appeals

Educational Background

  • University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.)
  • University of Scranton (M.A., History), summa cum laude
  • University of Scranton (B.A., History and English), summa cum laude

Professional Associations

  • American Bar Association (ABA), Intellectual Property Section
  • International Trademark Association (INTA)
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)
  • Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO)