Practice Areas
Trademark and copyright strategy, registration, licensing, and dispute resolution; domain name disputes; trade secret protection; right of publicity counseling
Highlights
Chris Kopitzke joined SoCal IP Law Group in January 2011. Her practice focuses on trademark and copyright counseling and dispute resolution. She advises foreign and domestic clients in a wide array of industries on the adoption and use of trademarks and on the protection, enforcement, licensing, and transfer of trademarks, copyrights, and publicity rights in the United States and abroad. Ms. Kopitzke regularly represents clients in business and adversarial negotiations concerning their intellectual property and in proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Her practice also involves advising and representing clients in creation and protection of website content, protection of trade secrets with non-disclosure agreements in advance of funding and contract negotiations, and performance of due diligence concerning their intellectual property rights.
Prior to joining SoCal IP, Ms. Kopitzke practiced in and headed the trademark and copyright departments in large and mid-size law firms in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Santa Barbara. Her professional experience includes complex international trademark licensing for a multinational corporation; copyright dispute resolution with federal agencies on behalf of a prominent national design firm; consultation concerning enterprise-wide branding strategy; author-publisher contract negotiations; and preparation of copyright licenses and assignments for contributors to books and online courses.
Professional Involvement
Ms. Kopitzke has been an active volunteer in a number of professional organizations, including the International Trademark Association and the Copyright Society of the USA. She served for many years as a member of and advisor to the Executive Committee of the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of California and California Lawyers Association and has served as the editor of New Matter, the Section’s quarterly journal. Ms. Kopitzke has also contributed to the local legal community as the long-time Chair of the Intellectual Property/Technology Business Section of the Santa Barbara County Bar Association and as a board member of the county’s Bar Foundation, and she is a member of Santa Barbara Women Lawyers. She was recruited as an editorial consultant for the 2008 CEB treatise Intellectual Property in Business Transactions and has spoken often on trademark and copyright topics to professional organizations at the local and state levels.
Admitted to the Bar
California; United States District Courts, Northern and Central California; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Education
Pomona College, B.A. English, 1975
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall), J.D., 1988