Pamela Deese

Practice Areas

Pam Deese is a partner in the intellectual property group. Her practice focuses on intellectual property licensing, brand management and advertising.

Client Work

Pam’s intellectual property representation includes counseling patent pools and other IP owners in developing strategic licensing programs. Her work involves the creation, negotiation  and enforcement of licenses and related agreements, as well as representation in regulatory approval proceedings, standards, audit support and analysis, assistance with import/export issues, privacy review of advertising and promotional materials for regulatory compliance, sweepstakes and promotions, celebrity endorsements and litigating related business disputes.

Professional Activities

Pam is active in numerous professional associations. She holds membership in the American Bar Association’s Litigation and Intellectual Property Law sections, the District of Columbia Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Additionally, she is a member of The Licensing Executives Society, the American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association, and the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association. Since September 2005, she has served as Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Science and Technology, Committee on Technical Standardization and Infrastructure.  Pam continues to serve on the Editorial Board and as the Trademark Licensing Columnist for the Licensing Journal.

Publications, Presentations and Recognitions

Pam is listed in Who’s Who and has recently received two notable awards: the American University Alumni Recognition Award (2000) as well as the DC Women’s Bar Association Recognition Award for Mentoring (2000).

Pam’s presentations include:

• "Aggressive Anti-Counterfeiting In Action: Auditing and Attacking," The 2009 Trademark, Anti-Counterfeiting and Gray Market Fraud Mitigation Summit; June 23-24, 2009 (Arlington, VA)
• “Examining the Relative Danger of Utilizing Product Endorsements within a Fluctuating Regulatory Environment,” ACI’s Second Annual Regulatory Summit for Advertisers and Marketers; June 17-18, 2008 (Washington, DC)
• “The Legal Aspects of Auditing Licensees,” ,” Licensing Industry Merchandiser’s Association (LIMA); June 9-12, 2008 (New York, NY)
• “Increasing IP Leverage and Mitigating Risks With Careful and Thorough Negotiations and Contracting,” ACI Conference; February 27-28, 2008 (Scottsdale, AZ)
• “Tighten the Reins on Your Nonprofit!” Aronson & Company; May 24, 2007 (Washington, DC)
• “Overview of Licensing Portal,” Arent Fox; December 8, 2006 (Washington, DC)
• “Playing by the Rules: Avoiding Legal Pitfalls in Online Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions,” Retail Counsel’s Summit on E-Sales & Marketing Law; October 4-5, 2006 (New York, NY)
• “Legal 201: Licensing Agency and Non-Disclosure Agreements,” Licensing Industry Merchandiser’s Association (LIMA); June 22, 2006 (New York, NY)
• “The Anatomy of an Agreement,” LIMA - Corporate Brand Licensing; March 16, 2006 (New York, NY )
• “Legal Foundations of Licensing - International Issues,” LIMA; June 18, 2005 (New York, NY)
• “Maximizing the Value of License Agreements,” Cause Marketing Forum - Licensing for Nonprofits; June 17, 2004 (New York, NY) 
• “International Issues in Licensing,” LIMA - Legal 101 Seminar; June 7, 2004 (New York, NY)
• “Corporate and Brand Licensing Agreements,” NY Intellectual Property Lawyers Association (NYPLA) and LIMA - Anatomy of a License Agreement; March 4, 2004 (New York, NY)
• “International Licensing Issues,” LIMA - 2003 Licensing Show; June 9, 2003 (New York, NY)
• “Corporate and Brand License Agreements,” Anatomy of a License Agreement - A Clause-by-Clause Analysis of a License Agreement, sponsored by LIMA, Aspen Publishers and NYIPLA; March 21, 2003 (New York, NY)

Pam’s publications include:

• “Quality Controls Assume Greater Importance in License Agreements,” LIMA’s Bottomline; Winter 2008 (Page 2)
• Trademark Licensing columnist with Henry Huffnagle, “Properly Allocating Risk in Trademark Licenses,” The Licensing Journal; June/July 2008 (Vol. 28, No. 6)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “Crisis Management for Trademark Licenses: Can a Licensor Minimize Its Risk,” The Licensing Journal; November/December 2007 (Vol. 27, No. 10)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “The Shop-in-Shop Concept,” The Licensing Journal; October 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 9)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “Limitations on Channels of Distribution in Trademark Licensing,” The Licensing Journal; September 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 8)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “Term and Termination Provisions of a Trademark Licensing Agreement,” The Licensing Journal; August 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 7)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “Negotiating the Royalty Rate,” The Licensing Journal; June/July 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 6)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, “The Importance of Trademark Clearance and Selection in a Strategic Licensing Program,” The Licensing Journal; May 2004 (Vol. 24, No. 5)
• Trademark Licensing columnist, Licensing Journal; 2003 - Present
• “Managing Intellectual Property in Licensing Agreements,” Franchising World; September 2001 (Vol. 33, No. 5)
• “International Licensing: Structuring Deals Worldwide,” International Quarterly; July 2000 (Vol. 12, No. 3) 
• “Negotiating and Structuring a Character License Agreement that Successfully Defines the Business Relationship,” The Licensing Journal; 1999 (Vol. 19, No. 6) 
• “What Licensors and Licensees Want Most from Merchandising License Agreements,” The Licensing Journal; 1996 (Vol.16, No. 8) 
• “The Related Party Loophole: An Analysis of the Valuation of Related Party Transactions for the Purposes of Calculating Constructed Value,” The George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics; 1988 (Vol. 21, No. 3) 
• “Impact of the United States International Trade Commission on Commercial Transactions,” Dickinson Journal of International Law; 1985 (Vol. 3, No. 2)
• Other intellectual property papers submitted at numerous seminars

Bar and Court Admissions

District of Columbia Bar
Pennsylvania Bar
Supreme Court of the United States
US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
US Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit
US Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
US Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit
US Court of International Trade
US District Court, District of Columbia
US District Court, District of Maryland

Education

American University Washington College of Law, JD, 1983
American University, BS in Political Science, 1980

Life Beyond the Law

Pam is conversant in Spanish. She is serving her third term as a member of the Board of Trustees of American University where she also serves as the Chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the School of Public Affairs. She is also a member of the Kennedy Center Circles Board where she has been able to play a role in arts education, one of her passions.

Additionally, Pam is an elder in the Lewinsville Presbyterian Church and is active on various committees. She also serves on a pro bono basis as the General Counsel of the Lewinsville Retirement Residence in McLean, Virginia. Pam is married to another DC attorney and they have three active children. She is a skier, runner and gourmet cook and enjoys doing most anything with her family.