“I love helping people. Practicing trademark and copyright law at Fitch Even enables me to do that every day by building brands for our clients and fostering and protecting their creativity.”

Clients seek Alisa C. Simmons’s counsel concerning domestic and foreign trademark prosecution, trademark litigation, and brand selection for a wide range of goods and services, including the following:

  • Consumer products
  • Household appliances
  • Foot care products
  • Software
  • Food products and healthcare
  • Retail
  • Restaurants
  • Hotels
  • Financial services
  • Business
  • Educational services
  • Charitable services

Alisa’s experience includes copyright counseling, registration and enforcement, advertising review, and advising on sweepstakes and promotions. She has also handled matters involving unfair competition and domain name counseling and dispute resolution.

In addition, clients rely on Alisa for counsel concerning advertising claims and product packaging. She is also skilled in drafting intellectual property agreements, including trademark, patent, and copyright licenses and assignments and non-disclosure agreements.

  • Represents a manufacturer of irrigation equipment in trademark prosecution, brand protection, and enforcement matters worldwide.
  • Counsels a small pharmaceutical manufacturer with respect to branding issues. Represented the manufacturer in a trademark opposition relating to key brand name; a settlement was reached.
  • Counseled a national commercial landscaping company in connection with branding issues. Assisted the company with rebranding following a merger and with acquisition of desired domain name registrations.
  • Represents a manufacturer of foot-care products in trademark prosecution, brand protection, and enforcement matters worldwide.
  • Prosecutes numerous U.S. trademark applications for foreign brand owners.
  • Counsels a manufacturer of vehicle gauges with respect to branding issues in the U.S.
  • Represented a regional natural gas supplier in declaratory judgment action against a regional telecommunications provider to ensure client’s continued use of brand name and logo to which it had recently transitioned. A settlement was reached.
  • Represented a global manufacturer of paints and coatings in trademark opposition against apparel and home goods manufacturer to achieve registration of a paint brand name that had been in use for more than 50 years. A settlement was reached.
  • Provided strategic IP counseling to a large communications trade association on revamping and updating its global brand.
  • Represents a global manufacturer of garage door openers to protect key brand names in consolidated trademark oppositions. Helped obtain a successful decision sustaining three oppositions and denying registration of confusingly similar marks of a competitor.
  • Represented a charitable Christian fitness organization in trademark oppositions that sought to protect the client’s brand and to prevent the registration of an identical mark for related goods and services by a national manufacturer of consumer goods. A settlement was reached.
    Represented a cookie company in trademark enforcement efforts and successfully helped protect the client’s logos by securing a competitor’s agreement to stop using confusingly similar logos.

Presentations

  • “Ensuring Copyright Protection in a Changing Legal Landscape,” Fitch Even Webinar, with Kerianne A. Strachan, May 2, 2019.
  • “Brexit: What You Now Need to Know to Protect and Enforce Your IP Rights in the EU and UK,” ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law 34th Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference, Arlington, Virginia, April 12, 2019.
  • “A Recap of Top 2012 TTAB Decisions,” Fitch Even Webinar, January 31, 2013.
  • “A Conversation on Copyrights and Quilting,” Faithful Circle Quilters Guild, Downers Grove, Illinois, May 23, 2012.
  • “Basics of Trademark Searching,” Harper College, Palatine, Illinois, May 3, 2012.

Publications

  • “Trademark Dilution Developments from the TTAB,” Landslide, American Bar Association, vol. 5, no. 2, Nov./Dec. 2012.
  • Co-author, “Challenges of Intellectual Property and Branding on Regulatory Approvals,” Nutraceuticals and Functional Food Regulations in the United States and Around the World, Sept. 2008: 417-438.
  • Chicago Women in IP
  • Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago
    • President, IPLAC Educational Foundation
    • Chair, Dinner Planning Committee
    • President, 2015–16
    • Board of Managers, 2010–11
  • International Trademark Association
    • Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition National Project Team
      • Chair, 2020–21
      • Vice Chair, 2019–20
    • Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition Chicago Regional Committee, 2009–present
      • Chair, 2017–19
      • Vice Chair, 2016–17
    • Member, Public Information Committee, 2018–present
    • Member, Related Rights Committee, 2011–17
    • Member, Emerging Issues Committee, 2008–10
    • Member, Information Resources Committee, 2004–08

  • J.D., Northwestern University School of Law
  • B.A., Biology, Indiana University

  • Illinois
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • Illinois Supreme Court

  • Named a Leading Lawyer in Illinois in Copyright & Trademark Law and Intellectual Property Law (2021–24)