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Erica B. E. Rogers
North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law
Erica is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law. She assists individuals, small businesses, and large corporations with a wide array of intellectual property matters. Her practice focuses on trademark selection and clearance, trademark prosecution and registration, and trademark portfolio management. She also routinely engages in resolving trademark disputes, including drafting cease and desist letters, negotiating coexistence agreements, providing subject matter expertise for litigation in federal court, and handling cases before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Erica assists with copyright matters, often in the form of counseling clients on ownership, acquisition, protection, and enforcement. She resolves internet and domain law issues and develops terms of use and privacy policies for websites and mobile applications. She understands the personal, financial, and meaningful effort clients invest in their intellectual property, and her background and work reflect this understanding.
Erica's focus on intellectual property law extends to assisting with transactional, licensing, and various business matters in multiple industries, including matters in the hemp and CBD industries. She is available to assist hemp breeders, growers, processors, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and other market participants with brand protection for hemp and hemp-derived marks, Federal, state, and local legal and regulatory compliance matters, and agreements within the industry.
Erica leads the firm's Name, Image, and Likeness Practice Group. Many individuals license commercial use of their name, image, and likeness ("NIL") to companies, and more recently, individual collegiate athletes have been able to do so. The NIL Practice Group primarily assists businesses who work with these athletes to promote products or services, in addition to assisting NIL collectives, marketing agencies, software platform providers, and financial advisors. Erica stays aware of the changing laws and regulations in this space, which complement her already-developed skills in negotiating and drafting license agreements.
Education
- J.D., University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce School of Law, 2016; Editor, IDEA: The Journal of the Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property
- B.M., Piano Performance, magna cum laude, Meredith College, 2013
- B.A., Spanish, magna cum laude, Meredith College, 2013
Honors and Distinctions*
- "Legal Elite," Business North Carolina, Intellectual, 2024
- North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law
- The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Best Lawyers®, 2022-2024
- World Trademark Review 1000, 2023
- "Rising Star," IP Stars from Managing Intellectual Property, 2020-2023
- "Tomorrow's Leader," International Trademark Association, 2017
Professional and Community Affiliations
- International Trademark Association (INTA) — Copyright Committee (2018-2021); Young Practitioners Committee (2022-), serving as Subcommittee Chair for 2022-2023 for The Annual Meeting Programming Subcommittee, planning the First Time Registrant Orientation and Reception for the Washington D.C. and Singapore Annual Meetings; Young Advisory Group (2022-)
- National LGBTQ+ Bar Association
- North Carolina Bar Association — Sections: Intellectual Property Law: Treasurer (2023-2024), Secretary (2022-2023), and Council Member; Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Committee (2022-); Young Lawyers' Division
- Triangle Intellectual Property Law Association (TIPLA)
- Triangle ArtWorks Law + ArtWorks
Admitted to Practice
- North Carolina, 2016
- United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of North Carolina, 2018
- United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, 2023
About Me
Practicing intellectual property law allows me to be at the intersection of creativity and structure. My desire to be in this profession stems from studying piano performance (and Spanish) in college. When I realized a career in music was not for me, I was pushed to law. I discovered lawyers could work for musicians, and working in intellectual property law is the logical continuation of that discovery. It is motivating to provide the legal structure to support the continuous creativity of businesses and individuals, and that's not to say there isn't a lot of creativity in the practice of law – there is both. I'm confident that is why I love the practice of law. It is the constant challenge, the drive to help others, and the unpredictability that motivate me.
If you really want to know me, let's talk about one of my favorite topics – international travel and understanding different cultures, or on a less serious note, ask me about my cat Carnegie."
* Please see the following websites for an explanation of the membership standards for the following recognitions: www.bestlawyers.com; businessnc.com/special-sections/legal-elite/; and www.superlawyers.com/north-carolina.
