Sophie Edbrooke is an attorney at Gerben IP, where she provides individualized trademark advice to clients in diverse industries. Whether she’s counseling a first-time business owner or experienced executive, Sophie provides tailored legal advice that clients need to grow and protect their brands.

Also specializing in the right of publicity, Sophie assists athletes, influencers, and other public figures with protecting their name, image, and likeliness. She has removed unwanted images and stopped the sale of unauthorized goods for clients whose likeness was being misappropriated.

Sophie keeps up with cutting edge technological issues in cryptocurrency, non-fungible tokens, and Web 3.0. She was one of the first to add NFT language to the USPTO’s approved list of identifications.

Before joining Gerben IP as an associate, Sophie worked for the firm while in law school, where she assisted attorneys with trademark prosecution, assignments, renewals, and enforcement. She also gained experience in crafting Office Action responses and applications with the USPTO. Sophie also assisted in monitoring the status of over 100 trademark applications and enforcement matters domestically and abroad.

While attending American University’s Washington College of Law, Sophie was a member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society. During her time with the Society, she held several organizational roles, including President, where she worked with the Executive Board to host its annual symposium. Together, they fostered professional relationships between practitioners, including a Netflix executive, and students, and helped educate students on prominent issues in these fields.

Sophie was born in England and grew up in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. After moving to Washington, D.C., she brought her love of Philadelphia sports teams with her and she can often be found watching the Eagles games with other fans. When she’s not working, you can find Sophie trying out new brunch spots or hanging out on the National Mall with her Basset Hound.

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Experience

• Created a monitoring and enforcement program for a nationally recognized hair care company, removing 100+ infringing product listings from third party selling sites.
• Protected the famous Toys ‘R Us family of marks before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and USPTO.
• Defended junior user of a trademark in federal court which resulted in settlement wherein client can maintain a federal registration and continue use of the mark. 
• Helped to form trademark protection strategy for athletes in the National Football League resulting in trademark registration for a retired hall-of-fame player. 
• Utilized the new expungement proceeding before the USPTO to clear blocking application and allow client’s application to proceed to registration while avoiding an adversarial proceeding.
• Successfully argued against 10+ substantive USPTO refusals resulting in trademark registrations on the Principal Register. 
• Negotiated a settlement between two cosmetics companies resulting in an out of court settlement. 

• Assisted client in removing an infringing application from the AppStore across multiple countries. 
• Managing international trademark portfolios and resolving international trademark disputes through adversarial proceedings or settlement negotiations. 
• Assisted in the removal of unwanted references and images of highly visible clients whose image was used by third parties without their consent. 
• Steri-Clean, Inc. v. Jake Soesa / Stericlean
  Domain Name Dispute: #2048362 | Domain transferred: 07/13/2023
• Rocket Lawyer Incorporated v. DNS Admin / Buntai LTD
  Domain Name Dispute: #2050504 | Domain transferred: 07/30/2023
• LTWHP, LLC v. Ulrich Eggers
  Domain Name Dispute: #2035974 | Domain transferred: 04/13/2023
• TRU Kids Inc. v. Ramsey Jabbar / Ramsey Dean Mgmt.
  Domain Name Dispute: #2014681 | Domain transferred: 11/09/2022
• SEESAW LEARNING, INC. v. Ven Rajagopala
  Domain Name Dispute: #1991932 | Domain transferred: 05/10/2022
• Lotto Logic Limited v. Carlos Tolentino
  Domain Name Dispute: #1921749 | Domain transferred: 12/28/2020
• THREDUP INC. v. Mike Doonin
  Domain Name Dispute: #1982763 | Domain transferred: 02/08/2022

VIEW MORE +

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Professional Contributions

• Sports Lawyer Association, Member (2021 – Present) 

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Recent Articles

• The Trademark Playbook for Influencers: Safeguarding Your Brand
• Best Practices For Drafting Trademark Applications for the Metaverse, NFTs and Blockchain
• A Guide to Trademark Protection in the Metaverse for Small Businesses
• The Complete Guide to Protecting and Registering Certification Marks
• LuLaRoe, LuLaRich, or LuLaLawsuit? Amazon Docuseries on LuLaRoe Highlights Needs for Copyright Diligence
• The Copyright Claims Board: A New Process for Helping Copyright Owners Fight Infringement

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Publications

• Hollywood’s Newest Loophole: Publicity Rights are Leaving Neverland as Docudramas Become Hollywood’s New Vice, 23 U. Denv. Sports & Ent. L.J (Spring 2020)

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Speaking Engagements

• 11th Annual ABA-IPL Trademark Days with the USPTO | Underused Resources – Technical Tools (Fall 2023) 

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Education

American University Washington College of Law

Juris Doctor (2021)

American University

Bachelor of Arts (International Relations and Economics), cum laude (2017)

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Bar Memberships

Admitted to practice law in the state of Maryland.

Admitted to practice law in the Federal District of the District of Maryland.

Admitted to practice law in the state of New York.

Admitted to practice in the Federal District of the Southern District of New York.