Mediation is an efficient, cost-effective, and often timely way to resolve trademark disputes in the U.S. District Courts and inter partes registration proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), an administrative court in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Mediation has become more common in the trademark dispute area because the Local Rules of various U.S. District Courts and the procedural rules of the TTAB either require or strongly encourage the parties to use mediation in an early effort to resolve the case.
Such mediation proceedings generally require the parties to submit statements of the relevant information in accordance with the guidelines of the mediator(s) which define the issues to be presented and present the parties’ respective positions. After such statements have been submitted, the counsel for the parties generally will participate in an in-person mediation conference led by the mediator(s) which will involve joint and separate discussions directed to resolving the matter.