Susan E. Hollander

Client Francis Ford Coppola Industries, a diverse group of privately held consumer product and services companies including wine, resort, food, publishing and entertainment interests, keeps Hollander busy defending the Oscar-winning director's brand against alleged infringers. She brought the client along on her recent move from K&L Gates LLP. She's currently representing Coppola Industries in the Southern District of New York, where she won injunctions against a winery and its distributor who produced a wine label with the word "cinema" and a filmstrip logo.

"Our claim is identical use," Hollander said, "because we own the federal registration of the word 'cinema.'"

In one case that got headlines, she sued on Coppola's behalf the owners of a small Marin County restaurant named Tavola Italian Kitchen, claiming that Coppola owns several Bay Area restaurants offering "A Tavola" services, meaning servings of family style dishes. The Tavola Family Trust had registered a U.S. trademark for the phrase, which means "to the table." The suit settled favorably to Coppola, Hollander has said.

In the Northern District of California, she's lead counsel in a new trademark infringement suit for Coppola Industries against Peter Coppola, a New York-based hair stylist and salon owner who uses the stand-alone name Coppola on hair care products. The issue: "Is he allowed to use the mark in commerce?" Hollander said.

Earlier, she represented Coppola Industries in a trademark opposition proceeding at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, successfully preventing registration of the Coppola mark for Peter Coppola's hair products.

"Coppola has great brands," Hollander said. "Sure, I drink his wine."

Elsewhere, Hollander has long represented Tri-Union Seafoods LLC, maker of Chicken of the Sea brand tuna products. In a challenge to New York-based Mr. Tuna Inc., she sued for breach of contract, trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition. Hollander won a $9.8 million judgment for her client. "They are very interested in protecting their mermaid logo," she said of Tri-Union. "Remember their old jingle: 'Ask any mermaid you happen to see/What's the best tuna? Chicken of the sea.'"

? John Roemer