Overview

Jennifer S. Sickler is an intellectual property (IP) attorney in Holland & Knight's Houston office. Ms. Sickler focuses her practice on a broad range of intellectual property matters, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret and licensing matters.

Ms. Sickler has experience in civil ligation of IP matters in federal and state courts, as well as arbitration and mediation experience. She has worked on IP matters in more than 80 countries, and her clients include companies and organizations in the energy, biotechnology, chemical, healthcare, oil and gas, fracking, liquefied natural gas (LNG), entertainment and retail sectors.

In addition, Ms. Sickler has experience with the preparation and prosecution of domestic and foreign trademark, patent and copyright applications. She assists clients with the selection, clearance and registration of trademarks in the United States and many industrial countries in the world. She represents clients in trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB); in Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) domain name proceedings; and in patent, copyright and trademark infringement, false-advertising and unfair competition cases in federal court. Ms. Sickler also liaises with counsel in other countries to procure foreign registrations and supervises litigation and resolution of foreign trademark disputes, conducts corporate due-diligence investigations, prepares and negotiates trademark licenses, and advises clients on trademark and trade-dress matters in advertising and social media.

Ms. Sickler's patent experience includes managing national and international patent portfolios as well as corporate due-diligence investigations, in addition to negotiating patent licenses. She also assists clients with copyright registrations for software and other works of authorship. In addition, Ms. Sickler assists companies with trade secret protection plans, confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements, and website privacy policies.

After law school, Ms. Sickler was a law clerk for the Honorable Sim Lake of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. During law school, she served as co-editor of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal.

Representative Experience

  • Was part of the University of Houston System litigation team in a trademark and unfair competition case against South Texas College of Law (rights to color red involved)
  • Defended a manufacturing client in a false advertising and unfair competition case and prevailed by summary judgment in federal court where the initial demand for damages was about $100 million
  • Tried the Waco International v. KHK Scaffolding Houston Inc. counterfeiting case and prevailed at trial (colors red and blue involved); due to the client's counterclaim, the team recovered about $1.4 million in damages against the plaintiff
  • Defended a hat retailer in a federal lawsuit involving claims of trademark and copyright infringement, unfair competition, false designation of origin and dilution; obtained a favorable settlement prior to commencing discovery

  • Defended a hair device company in a patent infringement case and reached a favorable settlement
  • Assisted an energy services company assert patent infringement claims against a prior company consultant and reached a favorable settlement
  • Represented a roller coaster company in patent infringement litigation and international discovery

  • Successfully defended a software company against claims of copyright infringement in an international arbitration
  • Defended energy services and chemical companies against copyright infringement claims related to their website content and achieved favorable results

  • Defended an oil rig manufacturer in trade secret misappropriation case and obtained a favorable settlement
  • Jury trial of trade secret case between two chemical coating companies

Credentials

Education
  • Tulane University Law School, J.D.
  • Rice University, B.A.
Bar Admissions/Licenses
  • Texas
Court Admissions
  • U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
Memberships
  • State Bar of Texas, Intellectual Property Law Section
  • College of the State Bar of Texas
  • Houston Bar Foundation
  • Houston Intellectual Property Law Association (HIPLA), Board Member
  • American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), Trademark Law and Trademark Litigation Committees
  • International Trademark Association (INTA), Trademark Reporter Committee
  • Junior League of Houston, Sustaining Member
  • Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Judge in Annual Business Plan Competition
Honors & Awards
  • World Trademark Review (WTR) 1000, 2022-2024
  • The Best Lawyers in America guide, Intellectual Property, 2019-2021; Patent Law, 2019-2023
  • Houston's Top Lawyers, H Texas magazine, 2016

Publications

Speaking Engagements

News