MARY SHAPIRO



Mary L. Shapiro is an intellectual property attorney specializing in trademark, copyright, an internet law. Having been a former client of intellectual property law services, her focus is on effectively enhancing and protecting the value of her client’s intellectual property in a practical and efficient manner.  She greatly prefers resolving disputes through settlement based on business and financial considerations.

Following a 20 year career in book publishing, distribution, and executive marketing, she relocated to San Francisco to study intellectual property law. In 1999, she started her legal career at Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP (now Kilpatrick Stockton), then the largest intellectual property law firm in the west, where Mary shepherded trademark, copyright, and internet issues for a variety of clients, largely in technology industries. After ten years at Townsend, Mary began her solo practice in 2009, continuing her day-to-day work clearing, filing, prosecuting, and enforcing trademarks in the U.S. and around the world. In 2016, she rebranded her firm to Evoke Law, PC.

Since 2007, Mary has handled a variety of cannabis matters, namely for Ed Rosenthal and QuickTrading. Her cannabis practice began in earnest in 2009, when Ed introduced her to Steve DeAngelo, Erich Pearson, and Robert Jacob. She started working with them through Harborside, SPARC and Peace in Medicine and has since federally registered their respective marks, though none for cannabis products, due to the federal prohibition to registering such marks.  The registrations are for ancillary services, that don’t touch the plant, and create a foothold to launch a challenge relative to any cannabis related products.

A founding board member of the National Cannabis Bar Association (NCBA), she is also a First 50 supporter of Women Grow. She speaks at industry conferences including NCIA , Women Grow, MJBiz, and New West Summit. She provides pro bono assistance to Marijuana Policy Project and Americans for Safe Access (ASA). She is also engaged in attempting to persuade the California Secretary of State to permit registration of cannabis marks. In addition, Mary is actively researching and writing on cannabis trademark issues, including such topics as trademarking strain names and trademark licensing.