I ♡ Trademarks Conference 2025Pride Overcoming Prejudice: Charting LGBTQ+ Paths in IP
Alt Legal Team | February 04, 2025
At the Alt Legal I ♡ Trademarks Conference, taking place on March 18, 2025, Michael Goodyear (NYU Law) will moderate a discussion with Adraea Brown (Harley-Davidson), DJ Healey (Spencer Fane), and Nancy Mertzel (Mertzel Law) on the evolving landscape of LGBTQ+ representation in IP, “Pride Overcoming Prejudice: Charting LGBTQ+ Paths in IP.”
In this panel, the presenters will explore historical examples of discrimination, reappropriative trademark applications, and the potential impact of trademark registrations on free expression. They’ll also discuss how practitioners can foster a welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ clients and colleagues to ensure that everyone can flourish in the IP world. In particular, they will cover:
- Historical treatment of LGBTQ+ creators under IP law
- Effects of Tam and Brunetti on disparaging or “immoral” mark applications
- Reappropriative uses of LGBTQ+ terms—and concerns about limiting community expression
- Practical ways to support LGBTQ+ creators, professionals, and brand owners in IP
Learn more about the Alt Legal I ♡ Trademarks Conference here.
Register for the Alt Legal I ♡ Trademarks Conference here.
Speakers
Michael Goodyear, Assistant Professor, NYU Law (Moderator)
Michael Goodyear is an Acting Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Law and a Fellow at NYU Law’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy. Michael’s research analyzes how copyright and trademark law can facilitate expression. He examines the potential of intellectual property law to spark and stymie technological and cultural change, including generative AI, deepfakes, and blockchain. He also studies how intellectual property law can empower historically underrepresented populations, especially the LGBTQ+ community. His work has been published or is forthcoming in over a dozen journals, including his article “Queer Trademarks,” which was published last year in the University of Illinois Law Review.
Adraea Brown, Assistant General Counsel – Trademarks, Harley-Davidson
Adraea M. Brown assistant general counsel – trademarks and apparel at Harley-Davidson and leads the Company’s in-house trademark team. In her role, Adraea oversees the Company’s 5,000+ global trademark portfolio, brand protection and enforcement, and trademark litigation. Adraea also provides legal support and counsel to the Company’s multi-million-dollar apparel and licensing business. Adraea joined Harley-Davidson in 2015 and before then, she spent time as an attorney at a boutique trademark and copyright law firm in Hillsborough, New Jersey. Additionally, Adraea is a member of the Board of Directors for the International Trademark Association and the Harley-Davidson Foundation. She is also a former member and chair of the USPTO’s Trademark Public Advisory Committee. Adraea earned her Juris Doctor from the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Spelman College.
DJ Healey, Partner, Spencer Fane
Danielle “DJ” Healey has been recognized by Chambers Global, Chambers U.S., Best Lawyers in America, IAM, and Super Lawyers as one of the preeminent intellectual property litigators in the U.S. She has over 30 years of experience in planning and executing enforcement strategies and counter-strategies in Federal and State Courts, the ITC, the FTC, European Courts, and the European Commission. DJ has put together lawsuits for plaintiffs to enforce their patents, protect their trade secrets, defend their copyrights, and to deal with overreaching by others through antitrust and other business torts. She has worked with defendants to efficiently and effectively navigate their intellectual property and related antitrust problems, in some cases saving her clients billions of dollars.
Nancy Mertzel, Managing Partner, Mertzel Law
Nancy Mertzel has more than 25 years of experience protecting brand names, products, content and technology. Nancy’s broad litigation experience includes numerous copyright, trademark, trade dress, unfair competition and trade secret disputes. She regularly litigates matters involving source code and technology, and has successfully handled cutting edge cases involving the scope of copyright protection in source code and data. For example, on behalf of a leading bank and big box retailer, she successfully defeated a claim of copyright in numbers. She also handles trademark infringement cases, “failed systems” disputes between developers and licensees, trade secret cases involving software, entertainment industry disputes, and recovery of domain names. On the transactional side, Nancy handles trademark clearance, prosecution and portfolio management, and drafts a wide variety of agreements including copyright and trademark licenses, software licenses and software development agreements. She also advises clients on copyright issues including the scope of protection in data, fair use and infringement.