Sophie Edbrooke, Esq.
Trademark Attorney
Managing Associate
1050 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
202-294-2287 (Office)
Trademark Attorneys Trusted For Our Experience®
Trademark Attorney
Sophie Edbrooke is an attorney and Managing Associate at Gerben IP, where she provides individualized trademark advice to clients in diverse industries.
Whether counseling a first-time business owner or managing international portfolios, she provides tailored legal advice designed to help clients grow and protect their brands. To ensure she can protect clients across all emerging industries, Sophie stays up to date on emerging industries and, notably, was among the first trademark practitioners to contribute NFT language to the USPTO’s approved list of identifications.
Beyond protecting companies’ trademarks, Sophie assists athletes, influencers, and other public figures in protecting their name, image, and likeness, under the right of publicity, including securing the removal of unauthorized images and stopping the sale of infringing goods. She also has extensive experience with protecting clients from online impersonation or website squatters through filing DMCA reports and initiating domain dispute proceedings.
As part of Gerben IP’s litigation team, Sophie has contributed to several high-profile matters, with experience managing multiple court calendars, conducting and defending depositions, and participating in oral arguments, in both federal court and the TTAB.
Before joining Gerben IP as an associate, Sophie worked for the firm during law school, where she assisted with trademark prosecution, assignments, renewals, and enforcement matters. Since then, she has continued to broaden her experience and sharpen her skillset by assisting with the registration of hundreds of marks, overseeing the process from application through registration and enforcement.
In 2025, Sophie was promoted to Managing Associate, where she plays a key leadership role within the firm. In this position, she helps train associates as they counsel clients on trademark prosecution, file and coordinate portfolios of international filings, and assist in enforcement efforts, including matters before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
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.
Experience
- Created a monitoring and enforcement program for a nationally recognized hair care company, removing 100+ infringing product listings from third party selling sites.
- Assisted in taking and defending federal depositions for discovery in a trademark infringement lawsuit.
- Satisfied the TTAB’s heightened and demanding standards to successfully plead fraud on behalf of a marathon organizer during a trademark cancellation proceeding.
- Settled an opposition before the Canadian IP Office between two software companies which resulted in limiting the opposing party’s trademark application, and allowed our client to continue to operate using its desired trademark.
- Assisted a coffee company in re-registering its trademark after it was accidentally abandoned. The process involved obtaining a coexistence agreement with a third party in order to obtain USPTO approval.
- Negotiated a co-existence agreement with a global media and technology company, allowing our client to register their trademark with the USPTO.
- Negotiated a phase-out of merchandise for an apparel client who received a cease and desist letter from a competitor, avoiding the need for a formal proceeding.
- Prevented a client’s competitor from registering a generic term in the direct-to-print apparel industry without an adversarial proceeding.
- Successfully opposed a professional athlete’s trademark application and negotiated a rebranding to protect a client’s trademark portfolio.
- Negotiated a proactive coexistence agreement that ensures a professional services company retains its right to expand its services in the future.
- Opposed a Motion to Quash in federal court allowing a client in the toy industry to conduct a deposition essential to its case.
- Negotiated an amicable settlement between two museums to ensure both parties could register their trademarks without expensive or contentious proceedings.
- Resolved an 18-month cancellation case regarding a potentially abandoned trademark to ensure our client’s trademark was able to be registered for its restaurant services.
- Assisted a hard seltzer brand overcome a refusal due to a potential likelihood of confusion to two other established alcohol brands.
- Successfully defended a cancellation action against a client’s trademark registration in the European Union.
- Successfully registered a trademark for a medical service provider, ahead of an important program launch, by overcoming two blocking registrations.
- Successfully enforced a trademark for a biohazard cleanup company through a cease-and-desist letter. As a result, the other party changed the name of its product.
- Assisted clients participating in mediation during federal trademark litigation.
- Successfully defeated a Motion to Dismiss fraud claims in a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) matter on behalf of an event organizer.
- Protected the famous Toys ‘R Us family of marks before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and USPTO.
- 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.
- Helped to form trademark protection strategy for athletes in the National Football League resulting in trademark registration for a retired hall-of-fame player.
- Won a domain dispute on behalf of a legal service provider, which enabled the client to shut down an attempt to fraudulently reproduce its website.
- Settled a year-long dispute in case before the TTAB between two educational companies, without the need for significant litigation expense. Our client obtained the desired result.
- 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.
- Negotiated a settlement between two cosmetics companies resulting in an out of court settlement.
- Successfully argued against 10+ substantive USPTO refusals resulting in trademark registrations on the Principal Register.
- 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
Professional Contributions
- Sports Lawyer Association, Member (2021 – Present)
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
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)
Speaking Engagements
- 11th Annual ABA-IPL Trademark Days with the USPTO | Underused Resources – Technical Tools (Fall 2023)
Education
American University Washington College of Law
Juris Doctor (2021)
American University
Bachelor of Arts (International Relations and Economics), cum laude (2017)
Bar Memberships
Admitted to practice law in the state of Maryland.
Admitted to appear before the Federal District of the District of Maryland.
Admitted to practice law in the state of New York.
Admitted to appear before the Federal District of the Eastern District of New York.
Admitted to appear before the Federal District of the Southern District of New York.