Lecturer Bios
Marianne C. Adams, Esq.
Marianne C. Adams joined the Major League Baseball legal team in 2009, while still attending law school, and upon graduation assumed the role of a trademark attorney. In her current position she handles a wide variety of worldwide intellectual property issues for all of the Major League Baseball entities, including the 30 Major League Baseball clubs, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball and other MLB-related entities. Her day-to-day practice focuses on domestic and international trademark prosecution, litigation and clearances, as well as quality
control review and enforcement matters. Marianne earned her J.D. and B.A. degrees from Fordham University. She is an active member of the International Trademark Association (INTA) and has been serving on INTA’s Trademark
Office Practice Committee since 2013. As a former professional ballet dancer, in her spare time Marianne enjoys attending dance and classical music performances.
Robin N. Baydurcan, Esq.
Ms. Baydurcan manages global trademark portfolios for clients in the fashion, food and beverage, media, financial services, and accommodations industries, among others. In her practice, she advises clients on trademark clearance and registration issues, opposition and cancellation actions, and enforcement, and drafts licensing, assignment, and co-existence agreements.
Lauren A. Dienes-Middlen, Esq.
As the Vice President of Intellectual Property, Ms. Dienes-Middlen is the Head of the Intellectual Property Group of the Business & Legal Affairs Department of World Wrestling Entertainment,
Inc. (“WWE”), a multibillion dollar, international, integrated media and entertainment company. At WWE, Ms. Dienes-Middlen is responsible for counseling the business groups regarding the
best branding strategy for enhancing and developing strong trademark rights worldwide, including proper selection and use of marks. She is personally responsible for all trademark
availability analyses as well as the prosecution of trademark applications and registrations in the United States and in more than 80 countries, currently consisting of more than 8,000 active and
registered marks. She also manages all trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings worldwide. In addition, Ms. Dienes-Middlen is responsible for negotiating and drafting all consumer products
license agreements worldwide, cause marketing agreements, product placement contracts, location agreements, photographer agreements, model releases, non-disclosure agreements, settlement and co-existence agreements. Ms. Dienes-Middlen also manages WWE’s Anti-Piracy Program. She devotes significant attention to overseeing the enforcement of WWE’s rights through the monitoring of online piracy and DMCA takedowns, cease-and-desist notices for sale of counterfeit physical goods, domain name arbitrations, seizures, and litigation before courts worldwide. She is experienced in protecting, monitoring, and enforcing various types of trademark and copyright rights and oversees all of WWE’s anti-counterfeiting efforts. In addition to assisting with litigation, she has valuable experience in achieving amicable resolutions of trademark disputes through negotiating coexistence arrangements and settlement agreements. Lastly, Ms. Dienes-Middlen is responsible for reviewing and approving all of WWE’s licensed product, venue merchandise, advertisements, books, magazines, home video, pay-per-view key art, photographs, and press releases. As a result of her years in private practice as well as her current employment with WWE, Ms. Dienes-Middlen has represented trademark and copyright ownership rights in a wide variety of industries including live and televised sports entertainment, digital media, apparel, toys and sporting goods, household goods, cosmetics and fragrances, food and beverage, magazines, home video and theatrical films. Ms. Dienes-Middlen received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Vassar College in 1992, and her J.D. from Western New England University School of Law in 1995.
She is admitted to practice in New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Prior to joining WWE in 2001, she was an associate at Gursky & Ederer, LLP, and before that, at Schweitzer, Cornman,
Gross & Bondell, LLP, both IP firms in New York City. In 2015, under her leadership, her intellectual property team received the 1st place World Trademark Review Industry award for “Sports, Entertainment & Media Team of the Year” and was a top-five shortlist nominee for North America Team of the Year and she was a top-five shortlist nominee for In-House Counsel of the Year.
Mary Leheny
Mary Leheny is Assistant General Counsel Trademarks at AOL Inc. located in New York City, providing trademark legal counsel for such AOL businesses as The Huffington Post. Prior to her role at AOL, Mary was the Chief Trademark Counsel at Novartis Consumer Health where she managed the global trademark portfolio for such brands as Excedrin, Theraflu, Triaminic and Benefiber, and before joining Novartis Consumer Health, Mary held the role of Senior Trademark Attorney for Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc. Throughout her in-house career, Mary has managed multinational teams on trademark portfolio clearance and prosecution, global litigation, licensing and M&A activities, as well as corporate initiatives on standardizing internal and external policies. Mary earned a J.D. and an M.B.A. (Marketing) from Fordham University, and was a Clerk in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals before entering into private practice.
Lesley A. Moradian, Esq.
For more than 25 years, Lesley A. Moradian has served as a senior trademark counsel at The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. where she has managed the trademark portfolios for many of the 30 + brands owned or licensed by the company, including Estee Lauder, Clinique, M.A.C., Bobbi Brown, Origins, La Mer, Aveda. She has also been involved in the company’s designer licensing programs for Tommy Hilfiger, Donna Karan, Michael Kors and Ermenegildo Zegna, where her client is the exclusive, worldwide licensee in the beauty category. She currently serves as Vice-President and Senior Trademark Counsel. Additionally, she has been a frequent guest lecturer on trademark clearance at Columbia University Law School and has served on various licensing panels for INTA, the New York Bar Association and other groups. She received a JD degree from The George Washington School of Law.
