»   Engage and respond to pre-trial discovery

»   Take and defend depositions

»   Work with expert witnesses

»   Prepare and respond to summary judgment motions

»   Brief and argue appeals at the applicable federal circuit court of appeals

I have extensive experience in the pretrial stages of federal litigation in matters involving trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and unfair competition. This experience includes drafting summary judgment and appellate briefs and in arguing their merits in court hearings. Well over 95% of lawsuits are resolved before trial, either on summary judgment or by settlement or dismissal.

I can represent clients either singly, or – as I have frequently done in the past – as part of a team that includes an experienced courtroom litigator.

Representative cases:

Scott Fetzer Company v. House of Vacuums, Inc., 381 F.3d 477 (5th Cir. 2004) (defended one-man vacuum repair/sale shop, House of Vacuums, Inc., against the Scott Fetzer Company (the "Kirby" company), which charged that client’s Yellow Pages advertisement, which listed “Kirby” among 13 brands of vacuum cleaners, parts and supplies that House of Vacuums sold and/or serviced, infringed its trademark; I successfully briefed summary judgment motion that ad was a non-infringing nominative use of the mark; I also successfully defended Scott Fetzer’s appeal of the judgment with briefs and oral argument before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)

Brinkman v. Beaulieu of America, Inc., Civil Action No. SA-02-CV-268 (W.D. Tex. 2002), aff’d w/o opinion, 67 Fed. Appx. 243 (5th Cir. 2003) (successfully briefed summary judgment motion for defendant Beaulieu of America, Inc., in trademark infringement lawsuit; also successfully defended judgment on appeal to Fifth Circuit, which affirmed the district court judgment).