Anessa Owen Kramer

Anessa Kramer is an intellectual property attorney with significant experience managing large international trademark portfolios for clients across a wide spectrum of industries, including pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. She manages U.S. and global trademark enforcement work, in particular, for a number of prominent and famous trademarks that are part of our everyday landscape. Anessa is particularly skilled in the implementation of cost-effective trademark clearance, procurement, and protection strategies, and she is widely recognized for her ability to provide “bespoke” services to clients, focused on their specific needs and business. Her experience touches all areas of trademark law, including domain name issues, social media, digital and print advertising and marketing, and licensing.

• Trademark clearance and prosecution: brand management counseling; developing and implementing cost-effective portfolio management and global trademark clearance strategies; selection and management of foreign counsel; and representation of clients before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
• Trade dress: prosecuted numerous trade dress applications before the USPTO involving product configurations and look-and-feel; enforcement of trade dress rights
• Trademark enforcement: implementing and managing both small- and large-scale trademark enforcement programs, including through watch services, investigations, cease-and-desist letters, and litigation; extensive representation before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board; representing clients in federal courts around the country in trademark/trade dress infringement, dilution, cybersquatting, counterfeiting, unfair competition, and false advertising litigation; working with U.S. Customs to stop infringements at the border; obtaining temporary restraining orders/ex parte seizure orders and executing seizures in counterfeiting cases
• E-commerce: challenging infringing domain names through Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) and cybersquatting actions; negotiation of domain name transfer agreements; representing clients in matters involving keyword advertising and other internet issues
• Corporate transactions: conducting due diligence review on behalf of purchasers of intellectual property rights; assisting in due diligence on behalf of sellers of intellectual property rights; negotiation of sale of intellectual property rights; recordation of security interests and assignments
• Licensing: drafting and negotiating license agreements; considering protection and enforcement strategies for licensed goods
• Advertising and marketing: review advertising and promotional materials for compliance with advertising and trademark laws; evaluation of possible false advertising claims; review sponsorship and product placement agreements

Practice Areas

Industries

Representative Matters

• Manage the global trademark portfolio of pharmaceutical companies, including prosecution, enforcement, and clearance
• Manage the global trademark portfolio of an international consumer health business and its affiliates, including worldwide enforcement and clearance
• Structured a cost-effective trademark enforcement program on behalf of owners of several famous brands
• Handled and successfully resolved dozens of oppositions before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, including a number that have gone through trial
• Reclaimed dozens of infringing domain names in cybersquatting UDRP actions on behalf of multinational companies
• Advised clients on trademark issues arising in the social media and advertising/digital advertising context
• Obtained preliminary injunction and monetary damages against multiple defendants in trademark infringement action in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
• Negotiated dozens of license agreements, coexistence agreements, consent judgments, and settlement agreements as a means of resolving trademark disputes
• Counseled companies, from Fortune 500 companies to start-up entities, on trademark clearance and mitigation of risk relating to international brand expansions

Prior Experience

• Brooks Kushman P.C., Shareholder, 2008-2010; Associate, 2001-2008
• Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP, Associate, 1998-2001

Education

Admissions

Court Admissions

Awards

• Listed in Chambers USA, 2017-2024
  
  • Recognized in Band 1, the top tier, in Intellectual Property in Michigan; Chambers USA states:
    • "Anessa is a thoughtful, creative and highly skilled trademark attorney who has been a true partner to our business in every sense of the word. "Anessa provides business savvy advice quickly.”
    • "Anessa gives incredibly practical and business-savvy trademark advice. She is incredibly responsive and provides great value for money."
    • "Anessa is a fantastic lawyer and business partner. She's thoughtful in her analysis and clear in her advice."
    • One source lauds her as an “excellent attorney” who is “very responsive” and “provides clear, understandable advice.” 
    • "Anessa Kramer has a highly regarded trademark practice, frequently assisting clients across a full range of portfolio management matters. She is described as a 'superstar' by impressed peers."
    • "Anessa Kramer advises on all areas of trademark law, including domain name issues, social media matters and licensing. Clients describe her as 'an expert in the field' who gives 'really terrific advice.'"
    • "Anessa Kramer is widely regarded as one of the leading trademark specialists in the state, with considerable experience advising global brands on matters of trademark prosecution and enforcement. Clients describe her as a 'fantastic counselor,' with one source going on to add: 'She is responsive, business-savvy and smart.'"
• The Best Lawyers in America, 2014-2025
  • Recognized in practice areas of Trademark Law and Copyright Law 
  • Troy Copyright Law "Lawyer of the Year," 2023
  • Troy Trademark Law "Lawyer of the Year," 2017
• World Trademark Review, Global Leader, 2022 and 2024
• World Trademark Review 1000 – the World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, 2015-2025
  
  • World Trademark Review 1000 states:  
    
    • "[Anessa Kramer's] wealth of foreign counsel connections in over 150 countries provides a stronghold for companies looking to enforce their trademarks internationally. Testament to the quality of her work, Kramer is well respected by peers: 'Even if we are competitors, it is nice to see her on the other side. She is great.'"
    • "[Anessa Kramer] is a fantastic business partner who gives practical advice while remaining creative and open to new approaches. She delivers exceptional value and flexibility, has substantial international experience and demonstrates extremely good instincts for conflict resolution and avoidance. She’s one of the best trademark attorneys in the US."
    • "[Anessa Kramer] navigates difficult issues with skill and grace. She is ultra-responsive and a superb relationship manager who is always clear on the staffing of matters and pricing. She understands the commercial impact of her advice and is a great business partner”. 
    • "Nobody is as quick, practical, smart or proactive as Anessa, whose advice can be relied on 100%.”
    • "Kramer is beloved by foreign associates who cite her as being ‘outstanding on all fronts.’ ‘To find a US attorney who is not only supremely capable and commercial but who also offers excellent value is incredibly hard, but Anessa fits the bill perfectly. She is one of the best trademark lawyers in the world. Super responsive, intelligent and practical, she thinks ahead and can answer your questions before you’ve even asked them. Her excellent team instills great confidence so that you know you are in the best of hands."
    • "Highly recommended for her portfolio management proficiency, [Anessa] is in sync with her clients – who are invariably famous brand owners – on a commercial level."
    • "Strategic maven Anessa Kramer is a 'fantastic attorney who consistently impresses. She always has an interesting take on matters and puts together excellent prosecution plans.'"
    • "[Anessa] stands out for her adroit portfolio management and her flair at recovering web addresses for beleaguered brand owners in domain name arbitration."
    • "Colleague Anessa Kramer is lauded for her prosecution prowess; able to handle a great number of marks with ease, she has also successfully implemented cost-effective brand management programmes for a number of high-profile clients."
• DBusiness, Top Lawyers, 2012-2019
• Michigan Super Lawyers, 2010-2024
  • Named as one of the: 
    • Top 25 Women Business Super Lawyers, 2014-2017
    • Top 50 Women Super Lawyers, 2014-2020
    • Top 100 Super Lawyers, 2016
• Managing Intellectual Property IP STARS, Recognized as Trademark Star, 2013-2022, 2024
  • Named to "Top 250 Women in IP" globally, 2013, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• Law Bulletin Media
  • Leading Lawyers, Copyright & Trademark Law, 2017, 2023-2024
  • Leading Lawyers, Intellectual Property Law, 2017, 2023-2024
• International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers, 2013-2015, 2020
• Michigan Lawyers Weekly, recognized as one of 25 "Leaders in the Law," 2010 
• Sylvia Simon Greenberg Young Leadership Award, Honored by Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, 2010
• Crain's Detroit Business, recognized as one of Crain’s “40 under 40” Metropolitan Detroit business leaders under the age of 40, 2007

Professional & Community Involvement

• Michigan Arts and Cultural Counsel, 2020-present (Appointment by Governor Gretchen Whitmer)
• State Bar of Michigan
• International Trademark Association
  • Anticounterfeiting Committee, 2020-present
  • Committee Member, 2003-present
• Michigan Intellectual Property American Inn of Court
  • President, 2016-2017
  • President-Elect, 2015-2016
  • Membership Chair, 2013-2015
• The Roeper School
  • Board of Trustees, 2012-2021
• The Jewish Fund
  • Board Member, 2011-2020
  • Liaison, 2009-2011
• Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit
  • Board of Governors, 2008-2014; 2020-present

News

Press Releases

Events

Alerts

Publications