Loletta Darden

Loletta Darden (aka Mama IP) has over 25-years of experience as a trademark, copyright, patent, and entertainment law practitioner. She is also a SAG-AFTRA actor and content creator. Ms. Darden’s interest in the arts drives her passion for supporting inventors and creators in protecting and exploiting their creative works.  Ms. Darden’s IP law practice began at Boston based Testa, Hurwitz, Thibeault, where she was encouraged to develop expertise in all areas of IP law.  Her practice focuses primarily on patent and trademark prosecution, trademark oppositions, copyright counseling and registration, IP contracting and licensing, media licensing, and IP rights clearances.  Ms. Darden also has experience clearing and licensing IP for use in audiovisual and theatrical productions and conducting IP due diligence investigations to support the assignment, licensing, or other acquisition of IP rights. She has participated in several precedent setting patent and trademark litigation cases, as well as copyright cases that have led to positive outcomes from a social justice perspective.

Most recently, Ms. Darden was a Visiting Associate Clinical Professor at The George Washington University Law School where she was appointed Director of the IP and Technology Law Clinic. Prior to joining GWU, Ms. Darden was a tenured Associate Clinical Professor and Director of the IP Clinic at Suffolk University Law School.  As a Clinic Director, Loletta taught IP law and supervised students on all aspects of IP practice, including litigation and media rights clearances.

Before joining Suffolk University, Ms. Darden was a partner at Sachnoff & Weaver, where she led the patent prosecution department, assisted with IP litigation, conducted due diligence investigations, counseled clients regarding rights clearances for audiovisual and stage productions, and represented small and emerging businesses in asserting and protecting their IP rights. Prior to joining Sachnoff & Weaver, Ms. Darden was Chief IP Counsel for a small consumer products company, where she managed the company’s IP prosecution and litigation portfolios and pioneered a strategy for strategically using and creating IP assets that significantly enhanced the company’s competitive position, taking it from startup to number one in three out of four product categories in less than five years.

Ms. Darden is a C-IP² Scholar at the George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property and Innovation Policy, where her scholarship focuses on the protection and preservation of IP rights for creators and inventors. She is also a member of the Giles S. Rich American Inn of Court and was appointed by Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, to the Patent Public Advisory Committee, (“PPAC”), where in 2024 Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO Kathi Vidal recommended, and Secretary Raimondo appointed, her as the FY 2024 PPAC Chair. Ms. Darden is also a founding partner of Darden Betts Strategic Intellectual Property Counselors, a boutique IP law firm headquartered in Washington, DC. She is also the voice of Mama IP, a straight-shooting avatar that passionately advocates for all creators and inventors to protect their IP rights.