Michelle A. Cooke

Cooke is the leader of her firm's intellectual property protection and enforcement practice, meaning she counsels businesses about safeguarding and enhancing their trademarks and brands, and she advises them on brand strategy and development, particularly as they expand their businesses internationally.

The pandemic has proven to be an especially busy time for her. "We thought things would slow down significantly," Cooke said. "Instead, after the initial shock and lockdown, businesspeople just really pivoted."

Faced with customers stuck at home and going online for most every need, businesses moved even more online than before. "It wasn't just about putting your goods on your website. It was about how do you keep your customers engaged. So clients were coming up with very interesting ideas on that front... all virtually," she said.

Her team saw a big jump in brand and trademark enforcement work, as well. One example was a U.S. vitamin and nutritional supplement company that sells its products in over 90 countries. During the early days of the pandemic, demand for one product shot up, leading to severe shortages. As a result, people in multiple jurisdictions overseas marketed products with infringing trademarks.

"Our job was to try to secure [the client's] rights before they were adversely exposed in new marketplaces, evaluate some of their licensing structures with some of their international distributors and increase the enforcement efforts," Cooke said.

Work for another client grew during the pandemic for a very different reason. Mount Sinai Health System partnered with a diagnostic test company to produce diagnostic test kits for COVID-19 antibodies. Cooke's team provided the joint venture with strategic counseling to establish its corporate identity and assess its intellectual property.

"This was a very dynamic project to help them with because it was a call to what the market needed," she said. "Helping them navigate that... was a very high-paced, exciting project for us."

Cooke has worked with Eurostar Inc., the parent of shoe store chain WSS, for many years on everything from trademark enforcement and brand development to overseas manufacturing. This year, she also helped Manatt conduct due diligence for the company's $750 million acquisition by Foot Locker, Inc. The WSS brand is remaining separate, and Cooke still speaks with her client's CFO every two weeks.

About 70% of Cooke's clients have intellectual property assets outside this country. She said her team takes "a very proactive approach," to ensure those clients "have a cohesive global strategy for growing [their] brands, securing those rights, and enforcing those rights."

For instance, she represents a young, fast-growing U.S. skincare company facing several trademark and other disputes in Europe.

And she represents two non-U.S. companies that make luxury "hypercars." The extra-speedy vehicles sell for at least $2 million. "They are works of art," she said. "I'm hoping when the pandemic actually lifts that I get to see one of these cars in person."

- Don DeBenedictis