Karol A. Kepchar practice centers on trademark, copyright, Internet and unfair competition law. Her experience includes litigation, counseling and transactional matters, with a particular focus on privacy and data protection.
Ms. Kepchar focuses on providing clients a unique process-based approach to managing and leveraging intellectual property and advises clients on a wide variety of issues, including global and regional branding programs, licensing and strategic alliance agreements, litigation, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board proceedings, domain name disputes, the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, ICANN arbitration procedures, and privacy and data security issues.
Ms. Kepchar represented the opposer, a major securities market, in the first opposition sustained by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board on the ground of federal trademark dilution since dilution became a ground for opposition in 1999 (The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. v. Antartica Srl). She has filed dozens of ICANN UDRP cases.
Ms. Kepchar is the former chair of the Trademark, Copyright and Unfair Competition Committee of the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association. An authority on intellectual property and the Internet, she has written and lectured extensively on the subject, including on trademarks and the Internet before the Licensing Executives Society. Ms. Kepchar is a longtime co-planner for the ALI-ABA’s perennial program, “Trademarks, Copyrights and Unfair Competition for the General Practitioner,” and was co-planner and presenter at Akin Gump’s First Executive Women’s Symposium on Privacy and Security (October 2003). Prior to joining Akin Gump, Ms. Kepchar was a partner at another law firm, where she headed that firm’s Internet and computer group.
Ms. Kepchar received her B.A. with honors from Bryn Mawr College in 1984 and her J.D. with honors from the Temple University School of Law in 1992. She is a member of the American and Virginia bar associations, the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the International Trademark Association. Ms. Kepchar is a member of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Pennsylvania bars.