Howard Shire has more than 30 years of experience in protecting and defending his clients’ products and IP rights against infringement. He has represented major corporations, as both plaintiffs and defendants, in trademark infringement and dilution cases, trademark and copyright counterfeiting cases, trade dress litigations, and all manner of IP enforcement cases, in federal district court, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Howard has also handled patent litigations. His work has resulted in verdicts worth millions of dollars for his clients and precedent-setting decisions in IP law.
Howard also has an active counseling and prosecution practice. His clients turn to him to help them develop and implement worldwide trademark registration programs. Howard coordinates major corporate acquisitions involving the worldwide transfer of patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and negotiates a wide variety of intellectual property agreements, such as licenses, assignments, trademark coexistence agreements, and joint ventures. Howard also counsels clients on intellectual property matters relating to internet issues and the selection of new trademarks and domain names, and has experience litigating actions to obtain domain names under ICANN’s dispute resolution procedure. His clients have come from many diverse industries, including computer software, consumer electronics, financial services, video games, restaurants and nightclubs, sports and entertainment, apparel, nutritional supplements, publishing, personal care products, alcoholic beverages, landscaping, music licensing, and pharmaceuticals.
Howard is also a trained and experienced mediator and member of the International Trademark Association’s Panel of Trademark Mediators. He has conducted several mediations of trademark and copyright disputes, Howard has also served as an arbitrator under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association. He has been an active member of the International Trademark Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, which encourages the resolution of trademark disputes outside of the courtroom.
Howard is a prolific author and has written articles on many topics including unfair, competition claims, personal jurisdiction, liability for false patent marking, fraud on The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the tacking standard, trademark dilution, fair use, inducement of infringement, keyword advertising, NIL issues, and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA).
He serves as editor-in-chief of Intellectual Property Strategist and is a former editor-in-chief of The Trademark Reporter, the leading scholarly journal devoted to trademark law.
He has spoken at meetings of the International Trademark Association. Howard is also active in MARQUES, which is the leading organization of European trademark attorneys, and has spoken at their meetings.
