Ward and Smith Attorney Erica Rogers to Judge NCCU Law Moot Court Competition

Ward and Smith attorney Erica Rogers will serve as a judge for the intellectual property moot court competition at North Carolina Central University School of Law next month.

Erica, a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in Trademark Law, will sit on a panel with other trademark attorneys, hear students’ oral arguments, and offer feedback and encouragement between rounds. The competition also helps the law school evaluate students as it recruits for its standing Moot Court Intellectual Property teams, which compete nationally in the International Trademark Association (INTA) moot court competition.

This semester’s participants will argue a fictional appeal, Benech, S.A. v. Pierre Saint Bergé America Holding, Inc., before the fictional Lone Star Circuit. The fact pattern is modeled on the well-known fashion trademark dispute between Louboutin and Yves Saint Laurent over red-lacquered shoe soles. It centers on a French luxury house that registered a lacquered red color on the underside of its handbags and a competitor that released an all-red collection. Students will address whether a single color on the underside of a luxury handbag is aesthetically functional as a matter of law, and therefore unprotectable under the Lanham Act, even though the trademark holder has shown the feature has acquired distinctiveness as a source identifier.

The competition will take place Friday, November 13, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m.