Owen, Wickersham & Erickson is proud to represent The Cooper Companies, Inc. (Cooper) – a global medical device company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Cooper was a relatively small enterprise in the 1980’s when Mel Owen began working with the company on trademark matters. Today, with over 11,000 employees worldwide and products sold in more than 100 countries, Cooper is an industry leader.
One thing that hasn’t changed over 30 years is the close relationship between Cooper and OW&E relating to trademark and related IP matters. Greg Owen now heads up the OW&E team that provides advice and services to the company, including Cooper’s two primary business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision (CVI) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of soft contact lenses and related products and services with over $1 billion in annual sales. CooperSurgical (CSI) is a leading manufacturer of medical devices for women’s health care and provider of fertility and genomic solutions.
Greg works closely with Wendy Stark, Cooper’s Global Trademark Manager, who has been handling trademark matters for the company for more than 20 years. “Wendy does an extraordinary job coordinating trademark clearance, application filings, registration maintenance, and enforcement for both CVI and CSI on a worldwide basis,” says Greg. “Both companies have very large trademark portfolios and everything comes through Wendy. She’s wonderful to work with and having a single point of contact helps me and the OWE team be as responsive and efficient as possible.”
“The global nature of our business is exciting and challenging at the same time,” says Wendy. “We don’t have an in-house trademark attorney in our legal department, but Greg fills that role seamlessly. The business units come to me when they’re launching new products or have trademark related questions and it’s important to get back to them in a timely manner. Greg’s quick feedback and advice is critical and plays a key role in helping me be responsive to these internal clients and keeping things moving ahead.”
“The Cooper Companies have been growing steadily and it’s been exciting to be part of the process,” concludes Greg. “We’re very pleased to be able to support Wendy and her colleagues and look forward to the IP challenges that come with the company’s continued global expansion.”