Meredith Wilkes co-leads the Firm's global Trademarks, Unfair Competition & Copyrights group. Praised by clients as "highly skilled and utterly trustworthy," she is a lead trial lawyer that has focused on high-stakes trademark, trade dress, trade secret, false advertising, and design patent litigation leading matters for global brands in federal and state courts throughout the United States for more than 20 years. In addition to trying Lanham Act cases, she counsels clients on brand selection and clearance strategies worldwide from searching to filing to enforcement. Meredith's practice encompasses a broad spectrum of goods and services from health and wellness to cosmetics to consumer goods to apparel and luxury brands.
Meredith represents clients on their most important matters from the preliminary injunction stage through trial. Novel, trade dress, counterfeiting, and internet-related infringement activity are among the types of cases she typically tries. Meredith has obtained relief on behalf of global brand owners such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Deckers Outdoor Corporation, Chevron, IBM, Wendy's, The Sherwin-Williams Company, and Victoria's Secret Stores Brand Management. Other representative brand owners for whom she provides intellectual property advice include: Procter & Gamble, Coty, American Greetings, Newell Brands, AutoNation, ICANN, Minted,The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, and McCain Foods Limited.
Committed to the practice area, Meredith is a frequent speaker on brand issues, is a contributor to The Lexis Practice Advisor in the area of anti-counterfeiting, and serves on the INTA Trademark Practices Committee and the IOC Trademark Law Committee. She chairs the Firm's Women in IP initiative.
Video
Experience
Additional Publications
- Summer 2017
Standing Still: Denial of Certiorari in Belmora LLC v. Bayer Consumer Care AG Leaves Question on Standing for Foreign Plaintiff’s Unfair Competition Claims, New Matter, Vol. 42 No. 2 - September 2013
Litigating the First Amendment Defense in the Video Game Context, INTA Bulletin, Vol. 68, No. 17 - May 2009
Get the Green Light for Green Brands, Managing Intellectual Property
Speaking Engagements
- June 6, 2019
Women in IP Speaker Series: A View From the Top—Bridging the Generational Divide: The ABCs of Gen X, Y, and Z - March 21, 2019
Women in IP Speaker Series: Everything You Wanted To Know About Recent Trademark Challenges, But Were Afraid To Ask - February 6, 2019
Product Trade Dress After Converse - December 6, 2018
Women in IP - Women in the Courtroom - November 28, 2018
The Ethics of Social Media (Practicing Law Institute) - November 27, 2018
Patent and Trademark Primer Jones Day CLE Academy - November 27, 2018
Jones Day CLE Academy - May 10, 2018
Trademark Infringement--Demonstrating Irreparable Harm to Obtain an Injunction (Strafford Publishing) - April 26, 2018
Jones Day's 2018 Speaker Series: IP Roundup - Strategic Enforcement Considerations - March 14, 2018
Women in IP Speaker Series: Where Should You Go - Or Not Go - From Here? - October 19, 2017
Women in IP Speaker Series: A View From The Top—Perspective of Women Leaders - August 24, 2017
Jones Day Women in IP Speaker Series: Women in the Courtroom - July 6, 2017
Navigating Venue and Jurisdiction in Trademark Cases, Stratford Publishing - November 16, 2016
IP Roundup - October 20, 2016
Women in IP Speaker Series: Bringing it to the Board - October 23, 2014
Social Media, Chapter Two, INTA Roundtable Presentation - August 21, 2014
2014 Speaker Series: Pirates, Steelers, and Other Branding Concerns - March 27, 2014
Trademark Litigation A-Z, INTA Roundtable Presentation - December 3, 2013
Games, Applications, and Social Media: Blurred Lines for Brand Owners, Jones Day CLE Academy - November 20, 2013
2013 Speaker Series: Whose Content Is It Anyway? IP Issues in Social Media - October 17, 2013
Whose Content is It Anyway, IP Issues in Social Media - July 18, 2013
Trademark Licensing - Beyond the Periphery, INTA Roundtable Presentation - May 8, 2013
Best Practices to Ensure Your Marketing Efforts Invite Sales, Not Lawsuits - May 8, 2013
Where the Lanham Act and the Patent Act Collide: Trade Dress and Design Patents, INTA Meeting - January 31, 2013
Trademarks, Social Media, Apps and Games, Jones Day University - November 29, 2012
A Big Year for Brands, JD CLE Academy - August 2, 2012
Keywords in Advertising, a US and European Perspective - June 7, 2012
Jones Day Chicago 2012 MCLE University - May 30, 2012
Where the Lanham Act and the Patent Act Collide: Trade Dress and Design Patents - March 8, 2012
Beyond the BRIC, Worldwide Prosecution Considerations - November 1, 2011
Are You Confused by that Use on the Internet? Trademarks as Keywords Continued, Columbus Bar Association - May 5, 2011
But All of My Friends Are Doing It, Trademarks and Social Media, Ohio State Bar Convention - April 14, 2011
Handling Complex Prosecution Matters - December 9, 2010
.what? ICANN's generic top level domain program, Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association - December 11, 2006
Trademarks: Fame, Fortune and All That Goes With It, Jones Day Intellectual Property Practice Meeting - March 17, 2006
Trademark Issues on the Internet, Jones Day Litigation Group Continuing Legal Education - December 5, 2005
Things That Suck About the “Use” of Your Trademark on the Internet, A Look at Fair Use & Parody, Cleveland Bar Association - December 9, 2004
Trademark Issues in Cyberspace, Cleveland Bar Association - May 2004
Trademark Issues in Cyberspace, Jones Day Continuing Legal Education - December 2002
Cyberpiracy and Personal Jurisdiction, Jones Day Continuing Legal Education - December 2001
The AntiCybersquatting Protection Act, Rochester Institute of Intellectual Property
"Excels in hard-fought cases"; "a top-notch lawyer" — World Trademark Review
- Creighton University (J.D. magna cum laude 1996; Assistant Editor, Law Review); Colorado State University (B.A. in Journalism 1993)
- Nebraska; Ohio; U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits; and U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Ohio, Northern District of Illinois, and District of Colorado
Recommended by the World Trademark Review for inclusion in the WTR 1000 (2014-2019)
Recommended by The Legal 500 US (2013-2019 editions)
Managing Intellectual Property IP Handbook "IP Star" (2013-2019)
Managing Intellectual Property "Top 250 Women in IP" (2013)
Women in Business Law "Leading Trademark Practitioner" (2017, 2019)