ANNE HIARING HOCKING
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Anne Hiaring Hocking has specialized in trademark and copyright law since 1981. She is Adjunct Professor of Trademark, Copyright, and International Intellectual Property Law at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California and Bangkok, Thailand. She has chaired numerous programs on Intellectual Property law topics, and has served as President of the San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association and Chair of the State Bar of California Intellectual Property Law Section. She has spoken and moderated numerous International Trademark Law Association and Practicing Law Institute programs. She has written for AmJur on copyright and trademark law topics, as well as presented numerous papers. She received her B.A. in German Literature from Reed College in 1973, Phi Beta Kappa and her J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1979. In 2006 she received an LLM in International Law from Golden Gate University. She studied at the Albrecht-Ludwigs Universitaet in Freiburg and the Freie Universitaet in Berlin, Germany. She also worked for the Iran Center for Management Studies in Teheran, Iran before attending law school.
After working at two large law firms, she was the IP rights attorney for Pacific Telesis for five years, where she was responsible for all aspects of domestic and international trademark filing and enforcement, and all copyright and trade secret procedures. She founded her own firm in 1990.
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CAROL SMITH
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Carol Smith has specialized in intellectual property law since 1981. She began her legal career as a litigator at several intellectual property law firms in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. In 1995 Carol became in-house counsel at Intel Corporation where she was the director of Intel’s international trademark portfolio and responsible for new brand advice and searches, registration, prosecution and enforcement of Intel’s global trademarks. Carol also represented Intel’s marketing department and enforced the “Intel Inside” co-branding program. Carol subsequently joined Infoseek Corporation in 1997 to become the Associate General Counsel and in 2000 she joined Listen.com, a digital music distributor as the company’s General Counsel. Most recently Carol was Special IP Counsel at Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco where she was responsible for strategic patent and technology licensing. Carol’s representative clients include Dolby Laboratories, Listen.com, Infoseek.com, Intel Corporation, Apple Computer, Quantum Corporation, Cordon Bleu, Inc.
In 2009 Carol Smith joined the Law Offices of Anne Hiaring as a partner and together they formed the firm of Hiaring + Smith. The firm provides over 50 years of business and law firm experience to its clients. Anne and Carol provide the firm’s clients with their deep knowledge and expertise in trademark, copyright, rights of publicity and technology law matters.
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Vijay K. Toke
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Vijay Toke is a partner at Hiaring + Smith. Vijay’s practice covers a broad range of business litigation and transactional matters, with a focus on trademark and copyright. Vijay has represented clients in jury trials in both federal and state court in intellectual property matters as well as other commercial disputes. He also assists our clients in handling trademark applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) and in inter partes proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). Vijay also represents some of the Bay Area's most well-known and acclaimed restaurants.
Vijay graduated from Swarthmore College in 1996, where he received a Bachelors of Arts degree in Biology. He also received a Masters in Public Administration (M.P.A.) from California State University in 1997. Vijay received his J.D. in 2001 from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. At Hastings, Vijay participated in both the National Moot Court Competition and Saul Lefkowitz Trademark and Unfair Competition Moot Court Tournament, finishing regional semi-finalist and placing nationally. He serves as an alumni coach for the Hastings moot court teams for the Saul Lefkowitz Trademark and Unfair Competition Moot Court Tournament.
Vijay is a member of the State Bar of California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the International Trademark Association. He is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Northern, Eastern, Central, and Southern Districts of California and before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Vijay is an avid amateur chef, and loves to try new and interesting recipes. He is also proficient in Italian and hopes to be fluent one day.
KRISTIN NEWMAN de la VEGA
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Kristin Newman de la Vega is an attorney at Hiaring + Smith. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of San Diego in 1995 and her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2004. Upon graduation, she started practicing in the area of civil litigation at a firm in Marin County where she represented plaintiffs in a variety of actions, including complex personal injury and legal malpractice disputes. Prior to attending law school, Kristin was the Trademark Administrator for the San Francisco office of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP, where she was responsible for assisting the partner with whom she worked in establishing a trademark practice.
Maintaining her interest in trademark law, Kristin joined the firm in May 2006 where she plans to develop and expand her skills and expertise in this area of law.
ELLEN S. BASS
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Ellen S. Bass is of counsel. She is a 2008 graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law, with an honors certificate award in the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program and a nominee for the Academic Excellence Award for the Class of 2008. As a 2007-08 Fellow at the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law, Ellen was research assistant to J. Thomas McCarthy. She was a member of the USF Law Review and Intellectual Property Law Bulletin with the following publications: " A Right in Search of a Coherent Rationale -- Conceptualizing Persona in a Comparative Context: The United States Right of Publicity and German Personality Rights," 42 U.S.F. L. Rev. 799 (2008) and Survey, C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P., 12 Intell. Prop. L. Bull. 233 (2008). Ellen was a Case Counsel in the Moot Court Honors Program, and a top finalist in USF's 2007 Advocate of the Year Competition. She was brief specialist on USF's 2007 Saul Lefkowitz Trademark National Moot Court Competition Team.
Ellen received her B.A. in history and french from the University of California at Berkeley, magna cum laude, in 1990. She was subsequently awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Berlin, where she studied philosophy and comparative literature at the Freie Universitat. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a trademark and litigation legal assistant at the law firm of Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin and as a business development manager at an internet content syndication company. She is fluent in German, and speaks French and Spanish.
VICTORIA PEDERSEN
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Victoria Pedersen is of counsel. She is a 1990 graduate of University of San Francisco School of Law , with post-law Consortium Student studies in Copyright Law at Boalt School of Law, University of California, Berkeley. She was a member of the USF Law Review, received the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence, Contracts II, and served as an intern for California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk in 1989. She received her B.A. from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1983, with honors, and an M.S. from the University of Southern California in 1985.
Vicki knows the practice of IP law from the perspective of inside counsel as well as private practice in a law firm. She honed her expertise in entertainment and intellectual property law during her many years as in-house counsel to Winterland Productions, Inc. (1992-1995) and Signatures Network, Inc. (formerly Sony Signatures) (1996-2003). Her current practice specializes in copyright and trademark law and entertainment licensing. She has worked informally with Hiaring + Smith for several years and has become of-counsel.
Vicki and her husband live in Marin County with their sons, one in high school and one in grade school. She is active in helping her sons' schools.
GINGER McCORMICK
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Ginger McCormick is a senior research associate with over 25 years experience in trademark law. Prior to her affiliation with the Hiaring + Smith, she held an executive position with a major Bay Area retailer during which time she directed the company’s International Sales Program and was responsible for its international trademark portfolio (name selection, clearance, protection and enforcement), international anti-counterfeiting and litigation, domestic and international advertising clearance and contract negotiation, domestic and international labeling requirements, merchandising and licensing requirements, and Customs enforcement. She has written for EuroMoney on trade dress and trademark matters, and has been a speaker for the International Trademark Association and is a presenter at UC Davis extension on trademark matters for the wine industry. She holds formal degrees in the fine arts.
Ginger currenly plays piano and flute with two Bay Area chamber ensembles. Her teenage son is likewise involved in music, performing with a symphonic band and a jazz ensemble.
