Counterfeit Crackdown: Essential Pre-Litigation Tools and Litigation Tactics—Seizures, Freezes, and More to Protect What’s Real Across Physical and Digital Channels

Kristina Montanaro Schrader | Adams and Reese

Kristina Montanaro Schrader is ranked Up & Coming in Intellectual Property Law in Tennessee by Chambers USA.

As Anti-Counterfeiting Team Leader, Kristina Montanaro Schrader crafts modern brand and content protection strategies for a wide range of multinational businesses. Counterfeiting cuts across virtually every product sector, and Kristina serves clients in various industries, including fashion and luxury goods, food and beverage, software, electronics, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, sports, music and entertainment. In addition to fighting counterfeit sales, Kristina also works to protect celebrity clients from reputational damage caused by online imposters, fake endorsements and other deceptive marketing scams.

Kristina takes a collaborative approach to IP enforcement and frequently draws from an extensive network of brand, law enforcement, and online platform contacts to resolve cases of infringement quickly and effectively. She has negotiated voluntary agreements and developed alliances with various intermediaries, including Alibaba Group and Taobao Marketplace, Amazon, DHgate and the major payment processors, to improve their responsiveness to rights-holder reports of online infringement. Kristina is particularly skilled at IP enforcement through the lens of payment processing, which utilizes a “follow-the-money” approach to attack infringers’ abilities to process payments for their illegal sales.

Kristina’s perspective in advising clients is informed by her own in-house experience. Kristina previously served as an executive at the International Anticounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), a Washington, D.C.-based trade association devoted to combating product counterfeiting and copyright piracy. There, she executed strategic brand and content protection initiatives on behalf of hundreds of rights-holders and spearheaded collaborative efforts to address infringement on multi-seller platforms, including Taobao, Tmall, AliExpress, Etsy, Amazon, eBay and others. In this role, Kristina represented rights-holder interests before various international organizations and government bodies, such as EUIPO (formerly OHIM) and the U.S. White House. Prior to joining the IACC, Kristina also worked in-house at Gucci America and Dolce & Gabbana USA.

Kristina is a frequent speaker on issues related to IP enforcement, payment processing and the growing incidence of infringement on the dark web. She has directed public awareness campaigns for consumers and conducted training sessions for law enforcement, the financial industry and online marketplace personnel.

Maia T. Woodhouse | Adams and Reese

Maia Woodhouse is ranked Band 2 in Intellectual Property Law in Tennessee by Chambers USA.

Maia concentrates her practice on trademark, trade dress, patent, trade secret and copyright disputes, with a primary focus on litigation and enforcement. She has extensive experience practicing in federal courts across the country and before the United States Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. An experienced trademark litigator, Maia has particular proficiency in prosecuting and defending against motions for temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions in “bet-the-company” IP and technology disputes.

Maia works closely with a wide variety of clients ranging from multi-national corporations, charitable organizations and respected artists, focusing on their unique needs to help develop, protect and leverage their intellectual property through outside-the-box solutions. Her cases often involve complex products spanning a variety of industries, including medical device, nanoindentation, water filtration and mechanical and software-related technologies. Drawing on her litigation experience, Maia brings a practical perspective and understanding of her clients’ businesses to develop effective litigation strategies and, when appropriate, alternative resolutions.

New technologies create novel legal issues that reshape our understanding of business, policy and the law. To meet these new challenges, Maia thinks imaginatively and creates innovative solutions tailored to her clients’ needs, structuring smart strategies to protect their intellectual property rights and identifying and defining conscious business aims.

Maia keeps a close eye on burgeoning developments and their potential impact on her clients’ businesses so she can help them navigate these challenges. She has been published in multiple media outlets, including Intellectual Asset Management, is a contributing author on Tennessee’s trademark laws for Practical Law Company, and is a frequent speaker on protecting, managing and monetizing intellectual property assets.

I. Preventative anti-counterfeiting strategies | 1:00pm – 1:30pm

II. Pre-litigation anti-counterfeiting tools | 1:30pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

III. Collaboration with regulatory authorities | 2:10pm – 2:40pm

IV. Litigation strategies | 2:40pm – 3:10pm