Trademark Use, Abandonment, and Resurrection of Brands

John Cheek is Vice President & Chief Intellectual Property Counsel for Tenneco Inc., a Fortune 200 designer, manufacturer, and marketer of automotive products for original equipment and aftermarket customers.  Prior to joining Tenneco in 2017, Mr. Cheek was a senior IP leader at Caterpillar Inc. for nearly 20 years, where he served in IP leadership roles in the United States and Europe.  Mr. Cheek received an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Wabash College and completed additional undergraduate studies in Physics and Mechanical Engineering . He received a J.D. from the University of Dayton and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and has lectured on intellectual property strategy and management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  He currently serves as President of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel (ACPC), on the Board of Directors of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO), and on the Board of Directors of the IPO Education Foundation.

Valerie Verret is Senior Trademark Counsel for Exxon Mobil Corporation, located in Spring, Texas. Valerie helps her business clients obtain, protect and enforce trademarks in the United States and throughout the world. With primary responsibility for the fuels, chemicals and upstream divisions of the company, her work includes the ESSO, EXXON, MOBIL and EXXONMOBIL marks, as well as non-traditional marks such as the service station trade dress. Valerie's primary responsibilities encompass all aspects of brand protection, including trademark clearance, prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and licensing. She also handles trademark issues related to acquisitions and divestitures and related transactions. Prior to joining ExxonMobil in 2012, Valerie was a member of the Trademark and Copyright Law department of Baker Botts. Valerie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Western Ontario and her J.D. degree from New York Law School. She is admitted to practice in New York and Texas.  

Claudia Stangle is a partner at Leydig, Voit & Mayer in Chicago with over 25 years of experience and specializes in trademarks, trade dress, copyrights, false and comparative advertising, Internet law, trade secrets, licensing, and right of publicity. Ms. Stangle has significant experience in complex inter partes proceedings before the TTAB, has represented clients in federal courts around the U.S. including in the Ninth Circuit, and has won numerous UDRP proceedings. She also has experience in patent infringement and trade secret litigation. She represents clients in a wide variety of industries including in the life sciences, automotive, insurance, reinsurance, financial, car rental, commercial real estate, software, AI, consumer and luxury goods, entertainment, cannabis, alcoholic beverages, and industrial products space. Ms. Stangle currently serves as the Chair of the Recruiting Committee and was previously Chair of the DEI committee and a member of her firm’s Board of Directors. She is also Vice-Chair of IPO’s D&I Committee. Ms. Stangle is a frequent guest lecturer speaking about a variety of intellectual property topics, has been a regional oral argument judge for the Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition and has served as an Adjunct Professor at Widener Law School teaching law students about copyrights and trademarks.  She has three boys and loves to run and bike in her spare time.