TMAE Summit 2025Marking to the Same Beat: Aligning In-House Trademark Teams with Other Departments
Alt Legal Team | April 26, 2025
At the TMAE Summit on September 16-17, 2025, Kara Fielder (Senior IP Manager at Worldpay) moderated a panel discussion with Keyonn Pope (Partner, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila) and Tara Dressler (Senior Director for Trademarks at System Administration in the Office of University Counsel), “Marking to the Same Beat: Aligning In-House Trademark Teams with Other Departments.” Download presentation materials here. Here are some key takeaways from the session:
Working with compliance/regulations
Keyonn – Being in compliance with regulations is crucial for maintaining brand trust and upholding consumer confidence. Regulatory alignment is the scaffolding that supports branding. What you promise consumers must be delivered upon.
Tara – Don’t be afraid to get a seat at the table, start attending meetings. Go introduce yourself as a resource and explain how you will provide support to anyone who might have trademark language in contracts.
Working with branding/marketing
Kara – I value the relationships I’ve built with marketing and it’s important to be seen as a helper not a hinderance. You can show your value to marketing by providing creative solutions.
Tara – I introduced myself to the marketing team and started getting invited to the meetings. They come up with lots of ideas for taglines and event names and I was able to chime in to ask whether they’ve cleared it. The team never took offense to me joining, they saw me as an additional resource. You might suggest that you add something to the mark or limit goods and services – figure out how to get to a “yes.”
Keyonn – Typically I am focused on matters from a legal perspective, but by attending marketing and branding meetings, it helps me understand what the marketing team is trying to accomplish.
Litigation/Enforcement Matters
Kara – Don’t wait for disputes to arise – get involved early, stay organized, build relationships, stay empathetic, know the portfolio, know how marks are being used, offer training so team understands IP risks and how to avoid them and enforcement strategies to avoid litigation.
Tara – Being deposed can happen! I was asked to be a content expert and testify about the copyright policy – but I am not a copyright expert. I worked with the in-house counsel and they prepared me. I was scared but I did it – you just need to give it a try and do things outside your comfort zone. If you prep well you will do well.
Tara – Offer to do an initial, soft reach out in face of a potential conflict as opposed to going directly to a cease and desist letter or litigation. For example, I suggested that the chancellor at CU Boulder reach out to a high school principal about an infringing logo and I offered to prep him, it all worked out really well. Figure out the connections who you can help and vice versa.
Keyonn – TMAs can contribute to litigation matters because they are the closest ones to the trademark portfolio should a dispute arise. They know what the competitors are doing, how to pull specimens, the manner in which the marks are being used, and “where the bodies are buried.” It’s really important for attorneys to leverage their knowledge.
Becoming a Strategic Connector as a TMA
Kara – In terms of relationship building, make it a priority to be friendly, approachable, available, not just when there is a problem, but consistently, to be seen as a collaborator who wants to see the business evolve.
Kara – Contribute to or write a playbook for your organization.
Tara – Don’t wait for someone to come to you – be proactive. Attend events held by your organization, even those that have nothing to do with legal and introduce yourself with your 2-minute elevator pitch – who you are and how you can help.
Speakers
Kara Fielder
, Senior IP Manager at Worldpay
Kara Fielder is the Senior IP Manager at Worldpay, LLC. With 20+ years of experience in the legal field, Kara has extensive experience in the area of trademark administration. Prior to her current role, Kara was the Global IP Manager at The Hershey Company. At Hershey, in addition to managing the company’s large global trademark portfolio, Kara managed Hershey’s IP paralegals, docketing team, outside counsel, and vendors. She was also a key business partner to Hershey’s commercial, regulatory, design, and innovation teams. Kara is actively involved with the International Trademark Association (INTA) and is currently serving as the Chair of INTA’s Trademark Administrators Committee. She also serves as an Advisory Board member of Corsearch.
Keyonn Pope, Partner, Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila
A tech-savvy litigator and business-minded advisor, Keyonn Pope helps clients navigate complex and high-stakes issues involving intellectual property, media and entertainment, and a range of commercial disputes. Clients across multiple industries rely on Keyonn to represent their brands in bet-the-company patent and trademark litigation and to help them develop and implement the strategies that protect their key technologies, domain names, product licenses, business processes, and more. With a deep technical background as an electrical engineer for a major manufacturing company and experience performing under pressure as both a student-athlete and musician, he has a unique ability to explain complicated subjects clearly and persuasively, which has enabled him to achieve favorable results for his clients even in the most challenging circumstances. Clients value Keyonn’s outstanding communication, proactive approach, and leadership skills, which balance an engineer’s attention to detail with a competitor and performer’s focus on achieving success. Though his practice is rooted in his work as an intellectual property litigator, clients routinely turn to him for guidance and counsel on a wide range of matters. Keyonn is a Chicago-based Partner and firmwide Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice Team.
Tara Dressler, Senior Director for Trademarks at University of Colorado
Tara Dressler serves as the Senior Director for Trademarks at System Administration in the Office of University Counsel at the University of Colorado. Tara has been with the University since September 2007, where she had held the position of IP Manager for the Technology Transfer Office. Prior to joining the University, Tara worked as a paralegal in Washington, D.C. Tara’s legal experience has been focused on Intellectual Property and she holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Penn State University, as well as a Bachelor of Science Degree in Paralegal Studies from the University of Maryland.