Congratulations to our winners!
Pro Bono Legal Services to an Individual
Richard Biagi (Neal & McDevitt, LLC, USA), a trumpet player, combines his two passions—music and trademark law—when representing Bugles Across America, on a pro bono basis. BAA is a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing volunteer buglers to play Taps at veterans’ funerals at no charge to their families. When BAA needed help with a trademark and domain name dispute, Richard solved their problems. His well-crafted letter resulted in the relinquishment of the offending domain names in less than two months.
Geri Haight (Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, USA) has committed more than 1400 pro bono hours to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization in the U.S. For example, she helped the Human Rights Campaign overcome a refusal by the USPTO to register a number of trademarks and associated designs. Geri prepared and submitted voluminous information in support of her clients’ argument that the trademarks had acquired distinctiveness despite less than five years of use. Since then, Geri has been responsible for managing all trademark prosecution and enforcement issues for the Human Rights Campaign.
Pro Bono Legal Services by a Member Organization
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP (USA) has made pro bono services an important part of the firm. According to its 2011 pro bono annual report, all of its associates participated in pro bono services. The firm provided a total of 7,834 hours of pro bono work in 2011, amounting to more than $3 million worth of services. It established a Pro Bono Institute, a program to train and encourage pro bono work among in-house law departments, and has developed a partnership with Lawyer’s for the Creative Arts to connect its attorneys with IP related cases. Recently, the firm won a substantial victory in the US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in the Flava Works, Inc v. Marques Rondale Gunter, et al case.