Articles

Thomas W. Brooke protects intellectual property rights for a wide variety of clients located all over the world, ranging from large and small corporations, associations and trade groups to entrepreneurial individuals. His work ranges from initial counseling and trademark selection, copyright and trademark registration around the world, licensing and technology transfers to intellectual property litigation throughout the United States and in every major country. Related matters include drafting and interpreting agreements relating to ownership and use of names, images, photographs, software, trade secrets, music and other intellectual property. Martindale-Hubbell rates Mr. Brooke as an AV Preeminent Peer Reviewed lawyer. Other honors include yearly listings in Who’s Who Legal and Washington, D.C., Super Lawyers magazine.

Mr. Brooke ranks among the most prolific filers of U.S. trademark applications, and has strong relationships within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In 2016, the International Trademark Association (INTA) asked him to serve a two-year stint as chair of the association’s U.S. Trademark Office Practices Committee, working directly with the U.S. Commissioner of Trademarks and other top-level staff at the USPTO. He previously served as chair of the INTA’s U.S. Legislation Committee, where he helped craft the Federal Anti-Cyber Piracy Act and the Federal Trademark Dilution statute. He currently serves on the INTA Internet Committee, focusing on data privacy issues. Other association and volunteer work include past service as chair of the Trademark Division of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Intellectual Property Law Section and as a member of the Section Counsel, membership on the INTA’s North American Advisory Council, Amicus Committee and Emerging Issues Committees, as well as leadership roles with the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) and the Intellectual Property Sections of the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars.

In addition to professional volunteer work, Mr. Brooke is Scoutmaster of Troop 128 in McLean, and previously served as Cubmaster of Pack 665.  He has also served on the Executive Board of the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  Other volunteer service include tenure on the Vestry of his Church and involvement as member and officer of a number of civic groups in Fairfax and Arlington Counties.

Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Brooke worked on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., as a legislative assistant to the late Sen. John McCain and former Rep. Frank R. Wolf.

Congratulations to Thomas and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.

David Morriss is a native of Elizabethton, Tennessee.  He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1979, and spent the first five years of his Navy career as a surface warfare officer.  After serving as the Supporting Arms Coordinator for the U.S. Marines in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983 at the time of the Marine Barracks bombing, he was accepted to the University of Virginia School of Law under the Navy’s law education program.  He graduated in 1987 with a Juris Doctors degree and was assigned to Charleston, South Carolina, prosecuting and defending courts-martial and providing legal advice to Navy commanders.  In 1990, he was selected to become the Assistant Special Counsel to the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon.  In 1992, Morriss was assigned to the Administrative Law Division in the Office of the Navy Judge Advocate General and in 1994 he was admitted to Harvard Law School to pursue a Masters in Law focusing on international and environmental law.  Following graduation in 1995, Morriss was assigned as the Fleet and Force Judge Advocate for the U.S. Fifth Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.

In 1997, he returned to the United States to serve in the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs.  Morriss was selected for and assumed command of Naval Legal Services Office, North Central in Washington, DC in 2000.  In late 2001, he became the Legal and Legislative Counsel to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations and in 2003 he returned to the Navy’s Office of Legislative Affairs as the Director of Legislation.  Morriss retired from the Navy in 2005 as a Captain after 26 years of commissioned service and immediately joined the Senate Armed Services Committee staff under its Chairman John Warner.  In 2007, Morriss was selected to become the Minority General Counsel for Senator John McCain.  In 2011, Morriss became the Minority Staff Director.  In 2012, Morriss left the Senate for the private sector and joined General Dynamics.

Morriss joined the Boy Scouts in 1968.  He attended the 1969 National Boy Scout Jamboree, went to Philmont in 1972, and became an Eagle Scout that year.  He served as Senior Patrol Leader for his troop at the National Jamboree in 1973.  He is a member of the Order of the Arrow.  His son, Graham, is also an Eagle Scout.

Congratulations to David and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.

Charles Allen is focused on building a Ward 6 with great schools at every level and a neighborhood you can always call home.

Charles Allen, his wife, Jordi Hutchinson, and their children, Cora Neal and Everett, live at 15th and D Streets, NE.

For over a decade, Charles has worked in Ward 6 neighborhoods, helping bring about school reforms, working with small businesses, and improving our community. His years of public service to Ward 6 mean he knows and understands our neighborhood issues like no one else.

What makes our neighborhoods so special is that people choose to make Ward 6 home, whether for five generations or just in the last five years – because our neighborhoods are an extension of our front steps. Ward 6 shares a vision of great schools we can walk to, thriving local businesses that know us by name, parks and playgrounds for our families, and safe streets for all. But we must ensure all our neighborhoods have these amenities, while protecting everyone’s ability to live, work, and raise a family in our community.

Charles began his career in the District as a graduate fellow with the federal Department of Health and Human Services, working on expanding community-based health options across the nation. Charles quickly understood that to make true change he needed to return to his roots working at the local and community level, so he began his service to the District as policy director for the DC Primary Care Association, where he helped bring about legislative, budget, and policy changes that expanded health care options for almost every DC resident. Two of his signature efforts – bringing physicians, dentists, nurses and other healthcare providers to medically underserved communities and creating a District-owned captive insurance company to provide free and low-cost medical malpractice insurance to non-profit providers – remain a vital part of the city’s health care safety net a decade after he helped create them.

At the same time, Charles helped found DC for Democracy and served as Chair of the organization to bring a needed voice for progressive priorities and social justice issues facing the city. These experiences led Charles to become an elected delegate for the District at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, elected President of the Ward 6 Democrats, and serve as Chief of Staff to then-Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.

Charles graduated from Washington and Lee University and he holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

Congratulations to Charles and his fellow 2022 NOESA Honorees! Please join us on March 23, 2022 at Army Navy Country Club for a celebration honoring the 2022 NOESA recipients. For more information visit, www.ncacbsa.org/noesa/.