Tessa Brandsema, Esq.
Trademark Attorney
Associate
1050 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
202-294-2287 (Office)
Trademark Attorneys Trusted For Our Experience®
Trademark Attorney
Tessa Brandsema, Esq. is an intellectual property attorney working in a diverse array of trademark matters. She has a varied working background that includes experience in marketing, the restaurant industry, political campaigns, and non-profit legal aid organizations.
Tessa first joined Gerben IP as a trademark paralegal in 2019.
After two and a half years of immersive trademark experience, she decided to go to law school and received her JD from Penn State Dickinson Law. During her studies, she also served as the associate editor of Jus Gentium, an international law journal.
While pursuing her degree at Dickinson Law, Tessa was accepted into a dual-degree program that allowed her to spend a semester at Radboud University and earn an LL.M. in International and European Law.
Throughout law school, Tessa gained hands-on experience working at mid-sized regional law firms, where she handled a broad range of matters, including real estate transactions, elder law, family and divorce issues, and insurance litigation.
Tessa was born in the Netherlands and raised in the United States. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and cat. When she’s not working, Tessa is an avid equestrian, traveler, and creative writer.
Experience
- Oversees domain monitoring strategies for leading companies in legal and regulatory industries to help safeguard brand integrity online.
- Assisted a non-US client with enforcing their trademark rights in the United States by cancelling a competing mark in the hospitality industry.
- Negotiated a favorable settlement for a supplement company to overcome a Trademark Trial & Appeal Board Opposition and achieve trademark registration.
- Drafted, edited, and reviewed legal documents and filings for submission before the USPTO.
- Successfully registered a trademark for a client in the medical supply field after overcoming an Office Action due to a potential foreign language translation requirement.
- Successfully argued against an Office Action which alleged that the mark failed to function as a trademark in the baby food and snack industry, resulting in the registration of the mark.
- Drafted a successful Letter of Protest for a toy retailer to preempt TTAB proceedings.
- Successful Cancellation of blocking registration in the pet food industry, which cleared the way for our client’s trademark to register.
- Successfully oversaw Petition to Cancel proceeding before the TTAB that cancelled a blocking registration and allowed an insurance industry client’s application to proceed.
- Prepared a successful declaration of acquired distinctiveness to assist an educator and certification provider in overcoming a descriptiveness refusal.
- Filed a domain takedown and successfully removed an infringing website for a crafting brand.
- Overcame a Final 2(d) Likelihood of Confusion refusal for a client in the entertainment, restaurant, and accommodation industry, allowing for the registration of their trademark.
- Administers tailored domain enforcement programs for nationally recognized brands in the style, self-care, and food ingredient markets.
- Performed legal research in support of enforcement and litigation matters.
- Provides domain monitoring services for clients operating in the fields of industrial services and biohazard cleanup.
- Successfully argued Master’s thesis defense on the topic of the role of trademarks and artificial intelligence in the future of domain disputes.
Professional Contributions
- American Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division (January 2022 – present)
- Lancaster Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division (January 2022 – present)
Publications
- AI & IP: Four Important Letters for Business Owners to Know, Penn State Dickinson Law: Inside Entrepreneurship Law (May 2024)
Achievements
- CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Elder Law: Capacity, Penn State Dickinson Law (May 2023)
- CALI Excellence for the Future Award in International Investment Transactions, Penn State Dickinson Law (May 2023)
Education
Radboud University
Master of Laws (EU Business Law specialization), (2024)
Penn State Dickinson Law
Juris Doctor, (2024)
Millersville University
Bachelor of Science (Double Major: Speech Communication and Government & Political Affairs with a Minor in International Studies), magna cum laude (2018)
Bar Memberships
Admitted to practice law in the state of Pennsylvania.