Profile

Micheline Kelly Johnson is a registered patent attorney with a Chemistry background and an MBA in Finance, but as client needs have shaped her practice, it can now best be described as developing, leveraging, and managing Intellectual Property (IP) assets critical to clients’ revenue models--including trademarks, copyrights, social media, and trade secrets, as well as patents. Before joining Taylor English, she served as Chair of a large, national law firm’s Trademark and Branding section, having previously led the entire Intellectual Property Group, and personally had responsibility for an extensive global portfolio of more than 7400 trademarks and patents.

To Ms. Johnson, helping her clients protect their intellectual property rights and comply with related pharma FDA or FTC regulations is valuable time spent. She shows her national and international clients how to identify intellectual property assets, how to protect that IP, and how to monetize the investment in it. Throughout her tenured career, Ms. Johnson has represented a variety of clients including over-the-counter pharmaceutical companies, a global automobile rental and tech company, an international TV network, consumer products companies, hospitality interests, and web-based service providers.

Of late, Ms. Johnson is most excited about a recent decision in one of her international lawsuits, where the client’s trademark was judged “famous” for the first time ever, thereby extending its protectability. She also has prosecuted and litigated both domestic and international patents related to diverse technology including chemicals, manufacturing materials and processes, toys, medical devices, and computer-based business methods. Ms. Johnson offers clients strategic insight into achieving the maximum benefits from their intellectual property in a competitive marketplace.

In her legal career, Ms. Johnson has obtained trademark protection for both product configurations and market-leading brands, and negotiated and structured critical international co-existence agreements designed to protect brand strength while embracing business opportunities. She has coordinated enforcement efforts worldwide as well as in federal courts and before the Patent and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Boards of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Before her clients enter into any merger and acquisition agreement, she assists them in the due diligence necessary to thoroughly investigate a target company’s assets and public financing. She counsels clients in transactional matters involving intellectual property, including preparing transactional documents for license agreements, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and divestitures. Moreover, Ms. Johnson evaluates patents and drafts license agreements, freedom-to-operate opinions, validity/invalidity opinions, patentability opinions, and non-infringement opinions.

Ms. Johnson has consistently been named one of the top 50 female attorneys and top 100 Tennessee attorneys by Mid-South Super Lawyers, which also recognized her abilities in Intellectual Property. She has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Trademark Law for the last seven years, Copyright Law for the last three years, and in both Patent Law and Entertainment Law for the last two years.

Outside of work, Ms. Johnson serves her community in Chattanooga on the Mayor’s Council for Women, as a board adjunct to housing philanthropy Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga, and as a corporate advisory board member of the Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Initiative. She is active in the International Trademark Association (Emerging Issues Committee) and in the International Federation of Intellectual Property Attorneys (Fédération International des Conseils en Propriété Industrielle) (Trademark CET) and is a frequent speaker and writer on IP issues.

Ms. Johnson obtained both her law degree and an MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University, and received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, cum laude, from Spring Hill College.

Memberships

International Trademark Association (INTA), Emerging Issues Committee, Member, 2016–2019

Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI), Member

     Selected to serve on Trademark CET Committee

Tennessee Bar Association, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Sections, Member

Georgia Bar Association, Patent, Trademark and Copyright Sections, Member

American Bar Association, Member

American Chemical Society, Member

Community Involvement

Pro Bono Attorney in the Chattanooga Legal Aid Program, Volunteer

Pro Bono Attorney in the Atlanta Legal Aid Program, Past Volunteer

Second Life Chattanooga (Anti-Trafficking Organization), Former Board Member

Chattanooga Women's Leadership Initiative, Corporate Advisory Board

Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga (aka Interfaith Homeless Network), Past President, Vice President and Board Member

The Junior League of Chattanooga, Past Board Member

Corporate Partnership for Lookout Mountain Elementary School, Past Chairman

St. Jude Home and School Association, Past Board Member

Family Promise of Greater Chattanooga, Past Board President

Girls' Preparatory School Auction Committee, Past Member

International Students Host Family, Baylor School, 2009–2015

Our Lady of the Mount Catholic Church, Lector, Eucharistic Minister, Former Secretary of Parish Council, and Sunday School teacher

Foreign Languages

Newsroom