Susan Hollander

Hollander helps well-known clients protect their brands from trademark and copyright infringement. She works closely with companies that routinely see their marketing styles imitated by companies throughout the globe due to their high profiles in major industries, like Chicken of the Sea tuna and Francis Ford Coppola’s winery.

The wine and beer industry is notoriously rife with trademark battles as an ever-growing array of startups with small vineyards or breweries attempt to create brands that will stand out in an already crowded market.

Hollander sued an Oregon winery, Copa di Vino, for infringing on Coppola’s trademark and trade dress. The defendant was selling its wine bottles wrapped in a fishing net similar to Coppola’s packaging and emphasizing the word Copa on its label, leading to possible confusion about whether the products were related. GMYLP L.P., a California limited partnership v. James Martin et al., 16-CV6518 (C.D. Cal., Aug. 30, 2016).

“The defendant there had been on Shark Tank and we settled that case with an injunctive order that stopped the use of that netting design as well as some element of the label itself,” Hollander said.

U.S. District Judge Manuel Real of the Central District of California approved the stipulated order of dismissal in April 2017.

Last year, Hollander also knocked out a trademark request for a rival tuna company, Sirena, that infringed on Chicken of the Sea’s longtime logo. Hollander persuaded the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to deny the request in March 2017.

“Chicken of the Sea has a famous mermaid design,” she said. “It’s really one of the company’s most valuable assets.”

Now she’s involved in a lawsuit against another company, Otis McAllister Inc., that she says has already breached her client’s intellectual property.

“The defendant is the first company that fused a mermaid icon or logo on canned tuna other than Chicken of the Sea,” Hollander said. Tri Union Seafoods Inc. dba Chicken of the Sea Int’l v. Otis McAllister, Inc., 17-CV6646 (N.D. Cal., filed Nov. 17, 2017). The case is pending.

The branding maven has also been working closely with 24 Hour Fitness and ADP Payroll, both of which have seen a lot of copycat marketing campaigns from brands hoping to leverage their popularity.

— Joshua Sebold