Dave offers guidance in developing, managing, acquiring, and defending intellectual property. He has worked with clients in diverse fields, including hospitality, consumer products, software and information technology, telecommunications, real estate, commodities exchange, beverage, product distribution, catalog sales, high-end retailing, airline, aircraft manufacturing, call center, mortgage finance, and automotive distribution.

Dave counsels clients confronted with issues concerning:

• Intellectual property in transactions, including:
  • Information Technology Agreements
  • Non-disclosure agreements
  • Due diligence
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Licensing
  • Naming rights
  • Transfers
• Product and service brand development, exploitation and defense
• Trademark use and misuse on the web
• Copyright claims and defenses
• Data security and privacy in transactions
• Trade secret protection and misappropriation
• Patent, trademark, and copyright infringement
• Alternative dispute resolution (member of the International Trademark Association Panel of Neutrals)

Dave is an innovator. Reflective of this talent, he is the chief designer and most prolific proponent of the Arent Fox BrandArmada® service, which is an inventive and cost-effective, team-based approach for managing and protecting large international trademark portfolios. It combines the certainty of a scalable subscription service with an integrated, flexible, transparent and cost-effective team approach to trademark portfolio management.

Dave has also assembled a team to address all aspects of a data security breach from detection to resolution. From DMCA take-downs of offending sites to strategically managing litigation against those who unlawfully harvest private customer or patient information, from counseling regarding state data security obligations to assisting clients develop best practices against phishing and other identity theft activities, Dave and his team are prepared to meet, challenge, and thwart the worst offenders.

Examples of Dave’s representations of clients include the following:

• Dave has been engaged to develop a contract regime (primarily IP and data security) for a new initiative for a global commercial real estate company.
• He is assisting a nonprofit patient-care management firm develop a robust program for HIE (health information exchange) services for specialized patient groups.
• Dave assisted a hospital system with its EHR technology contracting.
• A financial services outsourcing company engaged Dave as primary outside IP counsel to thwart an apparent phishing attack designed to harvest user names and passwords by a cybersquatter. Within hours, the site was taken down, and within days, the defendant was enjoined from engaging in further harmful conduct.
• That same financial services outsourcing company also turned to Dave to assist with all intellectual property aspects of a complicated international corporate reorganization effort.
• Dave has successfully resolved a dispute involving Open Source licensing issues for an international hardware developer, manufacturer, and distributor.
• A multifaceted distribution and finance company looked first to Dave when confronted with a claim of patent infringement based on use of third-party’s enterprise software system.
• An international real estate company has sought Dave’s assistance in deploying an intellectual property licensing regime worldwide.
• Dave has provided trademark guidance for clients involved in a variety of naming rights contracts for entertainment venues.

Before joining Arent Fox, Dave was a Shareholder of Popham Haik Schnobrich & Kaufman, PC in the firm’s Washington, DC, office.  During his tenure at Popham Haik, Dave co-wrote an amicus curiae brief before the US Supreme Court on behalf of Dr Pepper/Seven Up Corporation in Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Prods. Co., 514 US159 (1995). Dave began his career in Washington in 1988, when he joined Mason, Fenwick & Lawrence, an intellectual property boutique, as an associate, focusing on trademark transactional and litigation representations. Dave was later elevated to partner and eventually managing partner, where he was instrumental in the merger of the firm into Popham Haik in 1994.

Dave is an active member of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Law Firm Committee of the International Trademark Association. Previously, he chaired the Leadership Transition Project Team of the Member Services Committee for the 2008-2009 term, and prior to that chaired the ADR Committee for the 2004-2005 term. He is also a longstanding member of the International Trademark Association Panel of Neutrals, now called the INTA Mediator Network, and a memer of a working group collaborating with Street Law, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to teach middle and high school students about the law.

Dave has been cited as one of the “world’s leading practitioners” by Who’s Who Legal in their International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers 2012.

As an active author, Dave publishes a blog on Business Integrity, focusing on intellectual property and data security issues. His blog may be found through his website at DavidGryce.com or by going to davidgryce.wordpress.com.

Dave’s published works include the following:

• “Request for Proposal in the New Economy,” co-written with Casey Mangan, Corporate Counsel with Allstate Insurance Company, Association of Corporate Counsel’s ACC Docket; June 2011
• Legal Issues in the Global Information Society (2005 Oceana Publications NY), contributing author on “Data Protection and Transborder Dataflows: Balancing Proprietary and Privacy Rights”
• “Signing on to Madrid,” Intellectual Property, a publication of Legal Times; Fall 2000
• “Madrid Protocol: A Brave New World,” IP Worldwide; June/July 2000
• “ ‘Qualitex’ Ruling Erases Shades of Gray on Color,” The National Law Journal; May 8, 1995 (Vol. 17, No. 36)
• “Trademark Enforcement Techniques Outside the Courtroom,” Preventive Law Reporter; Spring 1995 (Vol. 14, No. 1)
• The Franchise Trademark Handbook: Developing and Protecting Your Trademarks and Service Marks, contributing author, American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising (1994)
• “Monetary Risk Analysis: Patent Infringement Damages,” Intellectual Property Law: An International Analytical Review Journal; 1991 (Vol. 1, No. 3)
• “Confusion Evidence and the State-of-Mind Exception in Unfair Competition Litigation,” The Colorado Lawyer; April 1989 (Vol. 18, No. 4 at 655)

Dave’s speaking engagements include:

• “Negotiation Skills,” Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts Creative Entrepreneurs Program; 2010-present
• Panelist – “Are Mediators Facing Extinction in the 21st Century?” International Trademark Association; November, 2008
• “Current Legal and Legislative Trends: A Catalyst or a Hindrance to IP Protection?” Strategic IP Planning Conference, American Conference Institute; February 2008
• “Effective Representation of a Party in Mediation and Advanced Negotiation Techniques,” International Trademark Association; November 2004
• “IT Contracting in the 21st Century,” National Association of Purchasing Managers of the National Capital Area; November 2004
• Co-chair, American Conference Institute, Software Licensing and Distribution Conference; June and November 2001; May and October 2002; October 2003; June and October 2004
• Moderator, CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution – International Trademark Mediation Panel; January 2004
• Center for International Legal Studies “UN World Summit on the Information Society” Legal Issues Panel; December 2003
• Panelist on Alternative Dispute Resolution, International Trademark Association; May 2003
• Practicing Law Institute – Madrid Protocol speaker; March 2003
• Software Licensing Workshop, BNA; November 2002
• Moderator, Madrid Protocol Panel, International Trademark Association; May 2002
• Program Chair, Negotiating IP License Agreements, Insight Information Conference; March 2002

Dave has had many diverse experiences before coming to the law. From Rhode Island to Wyoming and Florida to Massachusetts, Dave has played guitar in a rock-and-roll band, acted as a music and theater critic for a weekly newspaper, and been a wrangler on several ranches in Wyoming. Music is an important theme in his career. In fact, he entered upon his legal career for the primary purpose of defending musician clients from some of the challenges he experienced as a performer. Today, he still plays a little guitar and spends as much time as he can with his lovely wife and daughter.