Kristen S. Ruisi

Partner
Kristen Ruisi

Kristen Ruisi has more than 20 years of experience advising clients on their global intellectual property (IP) portfolios and branding initiatives. Kristen manages and protects the global trademarks of major corporations and high-profile individuals, including actors, athletes, musicians, and entrepreneurs. She provides a wide array of services to protect her clients' IP and brands, from trademark prosecution and enforcement to due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and licensing agreements. Kristen helps clients in myriad business sectors, with particular knowledge of the nuances of registering brands and trademarks in the fashion and beauty, food and beverage, and cannabis industries.

Kristen offers clients global trademark policing and develops novel enforcement strategies, using innovative tools and other resources to track down infringers. She routinely prepares cease-and-desist letters and initiates takedown proceedings as needed. She also provides conflict resolution services, working hand in hand with attorneys in the firm's IP Litigation - Advertising, Brand, and Copyright Group. Kristen helps clients manage domain name disputes, including opposition and cancellation proceedings before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, and other organizations governing domain name disputes, and copyright matters regarding the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. She also counsels on social media enforcement, Internet-related matters, and domain name registration.

Attorneys in the firm's Corporate Group regularly depend on Kristen to handle due diligence for mergers and acquisitions involving IP assets. Her transactional work also includes drafting IP licensing agreements and collaboration agreements.

Before joining Venable, Kristen worked at a global high-profile fashion, beauty, and luxury goods company, where she managed the global trademark portfolio.

Experience

Representative Matters

  • Represented EMZ portfolio company FotoFinder Systems, Inc., a Germany-based global leader in skin imaging solutions, in connection with its acquisition of DermLite LLC, a U.S.-based handheld dermoscopy device company
  • Represents several high-profile entertainers on trademark prosecution and enforcement and licensing deals
  • Provides worldwide counseling and enforcement to a well-known entertainment and lifestyle media company regarding trademark prosecution, enforcement, and litigation matters

Insights

Credentials
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Education

  • LL.M. Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law 2008
  • J.D. St. John's University School of Law 2002
  • B.S. Criminal Justice St. John’s University 1999

Bar Admissions

  • New York

Recognition
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  • World Trademark Review, WTR 1000, Prosecution and Strategy, 2023
  • Variety, Dealmakers Impact Report, 2022 – 2023