Martha B. Allard Appointed to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

Chief Judge Gerard F. Rogers has announced the appointment of Marth B. Allard as an Administrative Trademark Judge at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Judge Allard's duties commenced on August 1, 2021. This appointment brings the total number of TTAB judges to 27, including Chief Judge Rogers and Deputy Chief Judge Mark Thurmon.

Martha Allard has practiced in the field of intellectual property (IP) law for more than 20 years. Ms. Allard comes to the Board from a position as Counsel to the Nashville, Tennessee law firm of Bass Berry & Sims PLC. Previously, she was an attorney with four other law firms, in New England and Tennessee. At the Bass Berry firm she was in charge of the trademark practice and docket. In representing firm clients, Ms. Allard was involved in both ex parte and inter partes proceedings at the USPTO, litigation in federal courts, and domain name proceedings and transactions, both for businesses and individuals. Her business clients included private and public companies, including Fortune 100 companies, healthcare companies, and technology companies as well as sports teams. As the head of the Bass Berry trademark practice, Ms. Allard was responsible for firm clients’ cases at the TTAB, as can be seen from the many electronic file records at the TTAB that include filings made by Ms. Allard and her associates. Because of her litigation experience, Ms. Allard was invited by the Chief District Judge for the Middle District of Tennessee to serve as a member of a select group of practitioners and judges tasked with proposing amendments to the local rules of civil procedure for that district.

Active in both IP professional organizations and in her community, Ms. Allard has held many leadership positions, including as a member of the Board of Directors, Vice President and President of the Tennessee IP Law Association. She has given presentations and written articles on IP practice considerations and legal issues.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Ms. Allard earned her law degree, cum laude, from Western New England University School of Law, in Springfield, Massachusetts, where she was a member of the law review.

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Text Copyright John L. Welch 2021.