Leesa Weiss

Leesa joined Edell, Shapiro & Finnan in 2021. She advises clients on legal issues concerning intellectual property, commercial relationships and business strategies to protect intellectual property assets, designing and implementing intellectual property policies, including selecting and adopting trademarks; evaluates the availability of new marks for use and registration; provides clearance opinions and guidance; performs and analyzes trademark use investigations, and recommends strategies; conducts trademark audits and due diligence investigations; develops procedures for acquiring and maintaining trademark rights; manages domestic and international trademark portfolios; and prepares license agreements, assignments, and related trademark use documents.

Prior to joining the firm, Leesa spent more than 34 years representing diverse domestic and international clients, including individuals and sole proprietorships, start-ups, small to large-sized corporations, and entertainment personalities through all phases of prosecuting trademark applications, and post-registration actions before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and collaborating with foreign associates to prosecute trademark applications on behalf of U.S. clients worldwide. Leesa has enforced and defended intellectual property rights, including prosecuting ex parte appeals and inter partes proceedings before the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board, and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; evaluated trademark and copyright infringement, unfair competition and domain name/internet issues, and provided infringement opinions; protected trademarks and copyrights through the U.S. Customs & Border Protection, Intellectual Property Rights Branch; and managed trademark and domain name enforcement programs, including resolving conflicts, drafting and negotiating settlement and coexistence agreements. Leesa has successfully secured thousands of U.S. and foreign trademark registrations.

A true native to the area, Leesa was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, and currently lives in Rockville, Maryland. Leesa regularly volunteers with the Nourishing Bethesda family food distribution coalition addressing local food insecurity. In her leisure time, Leesa is working on getting her golf score under 100.