Marcella Ballard
Marci has deep experience litigating design patent and trade dress infringement claims on both sides of the "v." As lead counsel for plaintiffs, she has enforced iconic product designs and packaging against lookalike competitors, securing favorable settlements and permanent injunctions that stopped the sale of knockoff products. As lead counsel for defendants, she has challenged the validity of asserted design patents and trade dress and obtained dismissal with prejudice. She complements this litigation work with a strong record of registering trade dress with the USPTO, including product configurations, packaging, and product enclosures. This gives clients a practical, end-to-end strategy for protecting product design and trade dress and enforcing those rights.
Marci also manages global IP portfolios and counsels clients on brand protection, trademark, copyright, trade secret, privacy rights, anti-counterfeiting, licensing, unfair competition, contracts, and business tort claims. Her clients span a wide range of industries, including fashion, media, consumer products, entertainment, financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and information technology. This broad industry exposure enhances her effectiveness in meeting her clients’ needs, regardless of their industry or business focus.
Marci is a veteran at prosecuting and defending motions for emergency injunctive relief. She is highly skilled in defining, managing, and implementing IP enforcement strategies for contentious matters—both offense and defense—and has served as lead counsel in anti-counterfeiting actions around the country, where she has obtained ex parte seizure and temporary restraining order (TRO) relief. Her experience includes managing the simultaneous seizure of counterfeited goods across 11 locations in a single day—an effort that involved coordinating with a large group of law enforcement officers, customs officials, and federal marshals. Her experience also includes developing and employing effective strategies for combating counterfeiting on global ecommerce platforms and obtaining injunctive relief against repeat offenders.
Previously, Marci served as an assistant district attorney in Bronx County, New York, where she tried more than 15 jury trials to conclusion and had a near-perfect record of obtaining convictions for the state. She earned her undergraduate degree on a full athletic scholarship to the Ohio State University (OSU), where she was an All-American scholar-athlete, amassing 14 Big Ten swimming titles, and was inducted into the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
Related Practices
Experience
Government Experience
- Assistant district attorney, Bronx County, New York
Representative Matters
Lanham Act and Copyright Litigation
- Represented a consumer products company, as lead counsel, in a design patent and trade dress infringement action in federal district court in Tennessee brought by a global footwear brand over its well-known boot design. Moved to invalidate both the asserted design patent and trade dress, and moved to dismiss at the close of fact discovery for failure to state a claim, resulting in dismissal of the case with prejudice
- Represented a leading seafood brand, as lead counsel, in a trade dress infringement action against a competitor over the brand’s iconic character design used on its canned products. Conducted discovery, retained experts, and took depositions, leading to a favorable settlement in which the defendant agreed to stop using the lookalike design
- Represented a global software manufacturer in a licensing dispute with its South American distributor, in a bench trial on an expedited schedule, prevailing at the trial court level and through confirmation of the award on appeal
- Represented the owner of intellectual property rights to various children’s books and characters, in a copyright, trade dress, and unfair competition action against an infringer who was selling goods through the internet and franchise stores
- Represented a global film studio in an action brought by its licensees over the rights to licensed goods from a major motion picture and resolved the case through mediation
- Represented a luxury retailer in a class action under California’s Song-Beverly Credit Card Act
- Represented an international furniture company in a trade dress infringement matter in the Southern District of New York, related to a popular line of furniture by an acclaimed designer. The case was settled, and the settlement permanently enjoined the defendants from manufacturing and distributing knockoff products
IP Portfolio Management
- Represents a global multimedia and product licensing company in protecting its trademark portfolio of more than 8,000 marks, including enforcement and brand protection functions
- Represents Roland Foods, a global gourmet and specialty foods supplier with more than 1,500 products, in defining and protecting its trademark portfolio
- Represents Altar'd State, a fashion and lifestyle accessories retailer with more than 100 stores in 30 states, in defining and protecting its trademark portfolio
- Represents Sunless, the global leader in sunless tanning supplies and equipment, in defining and protecting its trademark portfolio
Counseling and Brand Protection
- Successfully registered trade dress with the USPTO (design of a sardine can; packaging for consumables; enclosures for handbags)
- Counseling dozens of clients in obtaining, maintaining, and enforcing their trademarks in the United States and around the globe
- Represents a Fortune 200 consumer products company in managing its global brand protection function
- Represents a U.S. consumer products company in anti-counterfeiting matters, including obtaining ex parte seizure order(s) in multiple district courts, enabling execution of these seizure orders on the infringer’s facilities
- Advises consumer products and media industry clients on internet, social media, domain name enforcement, and takedown proceedings in multiple forums
Insights
Credentials
Education
- J.D. University of California College of the Law, San Francisco 1988
- B.A. The Ohio State University 1985
Bar Admissions
- New York
- Washington
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Recognition
- World Trademark Review, WTR 1000, Enforcement and Litigation, 2022 – 2026
- The Best Lawyers in America, Copyright Law, 2023 – 2027
- Legal 500
- Intellectual Property – Patents: Litigation (full coverage), 2024
- Media, Technology, and Telecoms – Advertising and Marketing: Litigation, 2024