A one-on-one approach that works for you.

Pamela Chestek practices in trademark, copyright, open source, advertising, and marketing law. She has worked in both law firm and in-house environments serving a variety of fields—-footwear and apparel, software, design, retail, and manufacturing are a few.  She has been an adjunct law professor and often writes and speaks about ownership disputes in patent, trademark and copyright cases, including scholarly articles on the subject. You can read more of her writing on her blog, Property, intangible.

Pam also has extensive experience in the open source community, in particular dealing with the challenge of managing brand identity and consumer expectation in a culture rooted in free access, collaboration and sharing. She brings her experience working collaboratively and transparently to all her client relationships, no matter what the organization.

  • Claiming Priority to Submarine Trademark Applications—A Curious Little Loophole - Landslide, Volume 17, Number 2 (2024)

    A Promise Without a Remedy: The Supposed Incompatibility of the GPLv2 and Apache v2 Licenses, 40 Santa Clara High Tech. L.J. 303 (2024)

    Open Source Law, Policy and Practice, Trademark chapter (2d ed. 2022)

    License Agreements After Mission Product, 110 Trademark Rep. 802 (2020)

    The Corporate Enterprise as Trademark Owner—The Proper Interpretation of “In re Wella,” 108 Trademark Rep. 1081 (2018)

    A Theory of Joint Authorship For Free and Open Source Software Projects 162 Colo. Tech. L.J. 285 (2018)

    Commentary: The Switch Thrown Wrong—How Railrunner Sent Intent-to-Use Down the Wrong Tracks, 106 Trademark Rep. 693 (2016)

    Commentary: B&B Hardware and Ex Parte Appeal, 105 Trademark Rep. 810 (2015)

    On Notice, Not Claimed: The Role of the Copyright Registration System, Landslide, Jan.-Feb. 2015 at 30 (2015)

    Commentary: Let’s Kill the “Naked License” Defense, 104 Trademark Rep. 924(2014)

    Who Owns the Open Source Project Name?, 103 Trademark Rep. 1240(2013)

    Who Owns the Project Name?, International Free and Open Source Software Law Review, 5(2), pp 105 – 120 DOI: 10.5033/ifosslr.v5i2.87

    The Uneasy Role of Trade Marks in Free and Open Source Software: You Can Share My Code But You Can’t Share My Brand, 7 J. Intell. Prop. Law & Prac. 126 (2012); republished in 102 Trademark Rep. 1028(2012)

    Who Owns the Mark? A Single Framework for Resolving Trademark Ownership Disputes, 96 Trademark Rep. 681 (2006).

    Michael Cantor & Pamela Chestek, The Line on Linux Lawsuit, Connecticut Law Tribune (July 2003).

    Control of Trademarks by the Intellectual Property Holding Company, 41 IDEA 1 (2001) (copy available on request).

  • Maintainer of FLOSS Model Trademark Guidelines.

    • May 11, 2022: Panelist: “The Copyright Lawyer’s Role in Tech Deals: Open Source Software and M&A,” The Copyright Society

    • January 14, 2022: “The Intersection of Trademark and Copyright Ownership,” California Lawyers Association Licensing and Tech Transactions Interest Group

    • September 21, 2021: “Managing Contributions and Managing Projects,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2021 – From Compliance to Cooperation

    • September 29, 2020: “Managing Contributions and Managing Projects,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2020 – From Compliance to Cooperation

    • September 10, 2020: “Would Open Source Trademarks Benefit from a Foundation?,” Open Source Initiative “State of the Source”

    • May 15, 2020: “Open and Trademarks,” OpenUK Future Leaders’ Training

    • November 15, 2019: “Panelist: The Relationship Between Open Source Software and Standard Setting,” Open Source beyond 2020 Powering a Digital Europe

    • October 16, 2019: “Trademarks and Free Software,” Free Software Foundation Continuing Legal Education Seminar on GPL Enforcement and Legal Ethics

    • October 7, 2019: “Panelist: Supreme Court IP Series: Peter v. Nantkwest,” American University Washington College of Law SCOTUS Series

    • October 2, 2019: “Managing Contributions and Managing Projects,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2019 – From Compliance to Cooperation

    • May 20, 2019: “Practical Advice for Adversarial Matters Before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board,” International Trademark Association Annual Meeting 2019

    • February 4, 2019: “Is It Time For a Strategic GPL Litigation Plan?” Copyleft Conf 2019

    • February 2, 2019: “How Should Lawyers Behave? Legal ‘Ethics’ and Free Software,” FOSDEM 2019 Legal and Policy Issues devroom

    • November 28, 2018: “Trademarks in Open Source,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2018 – From Compliance to Cooperation

    • March 9, 2018: “Making Licenses Understandable to All,” SCaLE 16x, Southern California Linux Expo

    • February 4, 2018: “Comparative Law of Licenses and Contracts in the US, UK and EU,” FOSDEM 2018 Legal and Policy Issues devroom

    • December 20, 2017: “Trademarks in Open Source,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2017 – From Compliance to Cooperation”

    • March 25, 2017: “Rock and Roll Bands and Free Software Projects: A Comparative Analysis,” LibrePlanet 2017

    • March 3, 2017: “Caselaw: APIs/CLIs: The Current State of US Copyright Law,” SCaLE 15x, Southern California Linux Expo

    • March 3, 2017: “Panel: Open Source Enforcement,” SCaLE 15x, Southern California Linux Expo

    • February 3, 2017: “The Backlash from Mismanagement of Inventorship in Multi-Party Deals,” AIPLA 2017 Mid-Winter Institute

    • December 21, 2016: “Trademarks in Open Source,” PLI Seminar Open Source Software 2016 – From Compliance to Cooperation

    • March 30, 2016: “Trademarks in FOSS,” Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit

    • March 18, 2016: “Issue Preclusion and the USPTO,” North Carolina Bar Association 2016 Intellectual Property Law Section Annual Meeting

    • January 22, 2016: “Trademarks and FOSS: Entirely the Same and Entirely Different,” SCaLE 14x, Southern California Linux Expo

    • December 16, 2015: “Trademarks in Open Source,” PLI Seminar Open Source and Free Software 2015: Benefits, Risks and Challenges

    • August 9, 2015: “How the Power of Community Prevails — It’s Not Only About the Code,” GUADEC The GNOME Conference 2015

    • January 31, 2015: “Fog of War – The GNOME Trademark Battle,” FOSDEM 2015 Legal and Policy Issues devroom

    • December 10, 2014: Panelist for “Hot Topics: Critical Issues and Important Cases in FOSS,” PLI Seminar Open Source and Free Software 2014: Benefits, Risks and Challenges

    • November 7, 2014: “How to Identify and Manage Intellectual Property Rights in Bankruptcy,” 37th Annual Bankruptcy Institute (paper; presentation)

    • September 20, 2014: “How to Write a Good Identification of Goods for Trademark Applications,” Carolina Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law Association (original slides here, public domain version for download here)

    • March 27, 2014: “Trademarks for Open Collaboration: Model Guidelines and an Unconventional Policy from Wikimedia,” Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit

    • March 21, 2014: “Allowing Third-Party Use of Marks Without Risking Abandonment” (presentation; paper), North Carolina Bar Association 2014 IP Section Annual Meeting

    • February 2, 2014: “Why Licenses Requiring the Use of Trademarks are Non-Free,” FOSDEM 2014 Legal and Policy Issues devroom

    • December 11, 2013: Panelist for “Hot Topics: Critical Issues and Important Cases in FOSS,” PLI Seminar Open Source and Free Software 2013: Benefits, Risks and Challenges

    • October 24, 2013: “The Brand is All You’ve Got,” All Things Open Conference

    • September 21, 2013: “Filling Out the Lowly Copyright Application (and What the Courts Don’t Get About It),” Carolina Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law Association

    • August 8, 2013: “Group Discussion: Privacy, Art and the Law,” Contemporary Art Museum, Raleigh

    • July 10, 2013: “Trademarks, Copyrights, and Intellectual Property: How to Protect your Work,” ReDress Raleigh

    • February 2, 2013: “How to Share a Trademark,” FOSDEM 2013 Legal Issues devroom

    • January 15, 2013: “Intellectual Property and Copyright Law for Artists,” VAE, Visual Art Exchange

    • October 9, 2012: “Image Rights: Who Bears the Risk?”, AIGA Raleigh

    • March 23, 2012: “Who Owns the Intellectual Property?“, North Carolina Bar Association

    • April 29, 2011: “Trademark Ownership,” The TTAB Comes to Boston!

 
 

Meet our attorneys

  • Pamela Chestek Portrait

    Pamela Chestek


    Pam has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Technical Theatre, awarded with high distinction from the Pennsylvania State University. Her law degree is from the Western New England University School of Law, awarded summa cum laude. She is a Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law, a fellow at UC Law - San Francisco, a member of the American Law Institute, the Editor-in-Chief of the Trademark Reporter, and frequent speaker for Continuing Legal Education programs. Pam was formerly on the Board of the Open Source Initiative and chair of its Licensing Committee, responsible for approving new open source licenses.

    Pam is admitted to practice in California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina and is Board Certified by the North Carolina State Bar's Board of Legal Specialization in Trademark Law.

    Pam had the great privilege of accepting an Ig Nobel award in 2004 on behalf of her mother’s work and of raising two completely brilliant daughters.