As global head of McDermott’s trademark prosecution and controversy practice, Christina (Tina) L. Martini focuses her practice on domestic and international trademark and copyright law, as well as domain name, Internet, social media, advertising, unfair competition and entertainment law.
Tina advises clients across the full gamut of soft intellectual property (IP) issues and across a wide range of industries, including pharmaceutical and life sciences, professional services, food and beverage, housewares, apparel, energy, agriculture, consulting, restaurant, franchising, advertising, real estate and financial services.
Her global experience includes brand development and brand management. Tina also develops, maintains and enforces large global IP portfolios. She works closely with companies from the beginning stages of product development and provides strategic advice in searching and filing for brand names domestically and internationally. She creates global filing strategies to maximize clients’ protection of their valuable brands in a streamlined, cost-effective way and handles the global registration, maintenance, enforcement, licensing and disposition of those rights. Tina also creates and implements IP policies and process plans that are tailored to meet her clients’ legal and business needs. Additionally, she has extensive experience in negotiating and drafting a wide variety of agreements that address various IP rights in jurisdictions worldwide.
Tina also has an extremely active global enforcement and litigation practice and has been instrumental in numerous litigation successes and proceedings in federal and state courts and before various administrative organizations, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization. She has a proven track record in global online enforcement issues, including infringements involving domain name and third-party websites, social media platforms and online marketplaces, and in successfully combating instances of fraud, phishing, impersonations and other online abuses by leveraging IP tools to develop sophisticated, multipronged enforcement approaches.
She has also been retained as an expert witness regarding trademark, unfair competition and trade dress law issues, as well as US Patent & Trademark Office practice.
Clients trust Tina with their most pressing legal issues, both within and outside the IP space, including accounting liability, employment, trade secrets, regulatory matters, investor disputes, commercial litigation, real estate and financial transactions, and corporate restructurings, among others. Tina regularly collaborates with her clients and McDermott colleagues across myriad practice areas and frequently leads cross-office, cross-disciplinary client service teams, including for bet-the-company engagements.
In addition to her Trademark Group leadership role, Tina also sits on McDermott’s Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee and Gender Diversity Committee and serves as the co-lead of the Gender Diversity Committee’s Business Development Working Group. She also previously served as the Firm’s co-national hiring partner.
Prior to joining McDermott, Tina was a partner at an AmLaw 100 global firm where she practiced for nearly 25 years. She held a number of key leadership roles, including serving as that firm’s National Hiring Partner-Associate Recruiting, sitting on the firm’s Executive and Policy Committees, serving as chair of its Chicago Intellectual Property Practice and serving on its Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee, among other roles.
Thought Leadership, Press and Community
Tina is the co-host of the WGN Radio show Legal Face-Off, one of the nation’s premier legal programs. She is also the host and producer of the weekly legal podcast Paradigm Shift, where she explores the business context, which drives both the legal profession and business landscape. Tina is a frequent speaker and author on a myriad of topics impacting both the legal and business landscapes. For nearly 15 years, Tina is also a regular columnist for the Chicago Lawyer magazine which features her column “Inside Out” which explores the business of law from the in-house and private practice perspectives.
Tina is a multimedia journalist, legal commentator and podcast host and has contributed to many media outlets, including Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, WGN Radio, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Corporate Counsel magazine, Law360, National Law Journal, Inside Counsel magazine, Little PINK Book, Chicago Lawyer magazine, Chicago Daily Law Bulletin and World Trademark Review. Tina frequently speaks on myriad topics, including business of law issues and trends impacting both the legal and business landscapes.
Website: https://www.mwe.com/
Previous Episode 1854 (2017)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinamartini/
