Alt Legal Connect Preview An Interview with Panelist Kelu Sullivan
Alt Legal Team | August 04, 2021
Alt Legal is looking forward to hosting its second annual virtual trademark conference, Alt Legal Connect, on September 13-15, 2021. One of the sessions in our amazing lineup is “Spring into (Office) Action: Dealing with and Overcoming OA Refusals” featuring panelist Kelu Sullivan. Kelu joined us ahead of the conference to give us a preview of what she and her co-panelists will be discussing, why her session is so important, and what she’s most excited about at Alt Legal Connect. Check out the video interview or read what she had to say below.
Tell me about your session and what you’ll be talking about.
I am co-presenting a session about how to respond to office actions and my particular topic is §2(d) likelihood of confusion refusals which can be very intimidating when you first receive them, but I’m going to be offering some great tips on first, how to avoid them if you can when filing your application, and two, some simple tips and checklists you can take away from the session that will help you tackle the response and help your client get their mark registered.
What is most exciting about your session topic?
I think the most exciting thing is that you can take this and implement it immediately into your trademark practice. These are simple things that don’t take a lot of time when preparing an office action response, but they are going to be immensely helpful as you’re thinking through this office action, how to advise your client on the next steps, and clever things you can do to not spend a lot of time in presenting a substantive argument when maybe you can avoid that by doing some tricks of the trade.
What is the most important skill or piece of knowledge people will get from your session?
One of the most important things you’ll learn from our session is that these refusals are not at all scary. There are ways you can look the problem in a logical, step-by-step way that will give you all the options and tools to help you create a good response and a good result.
What are you most looking forward to at Alt Legal Connect this year?
I am super excited about all the sessions that Alt Legal has put together. I think the virtual connection platform will be really great to be able to connect with other lawyers, especially during the pandemic. Since this is all virtual, I can do it from the comfort of my own home, but still make that human connection.
Besides your own session, what session at Alt Legal Connect are you most excited to attend?
I am super excited about the social justice panel, IP Matters: Practical ways that IP lawyers can advance social justice. I think in the IP world and in today’s political environment it is so important for each of us to do our part in helping advance social justice.