In the United States, for (most) trademarks to be registered, they must be used “in commerce” that the U.S. Congress may lawfully regulate. This can be a tricky topic, even for lawyers who do a lot of this work,
Main Content
Vanderbloemen Law Firm
A leader in the law for business, brands, intellectual property, and dispute resolution
Why choose Us
Vanderbloemen Law Firm is an entrepreneurial practice that benefits from years of experience in large law firms that offers the flexibility and attention of a boutique practice. We work directly with clients to provide predictability, accountability, and a “no surprises” approach.
Our Mission
Grateful for our strong ties to clients and colleagues, we strive to build meaningful relationships based on trust, quality, and dedication.
What we Do
We are a “go to” firm in South Carolina for trademarks, copyrights, other intellectual property matters, and franchise systems. We serve as outsourced general counsel to a wide variety of businesses. Our clients include start-ups, entrepreneurs, creatives, and well-known brands across numerous sectors of the economy.
Our Services
Helping Clients Grow & Protect their Businesses & Brands
Intellectual Property: Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents
We help clients secure and protect a wide range of intellectual property rights, including trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The firm handles both transactional matters, including the management of trademark portfolios and working with foreign counsel, and litigation and dispute resolution related to intellectual property matters.
Best Lawyers® has included the firm in its "Best Law Firms" rankings for trademark law, copyright law, and intellectual property litigation, and has selected the firm’s founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, as "Lawyer of the Year" in Greenville, SC for trademark law and for copyright law in prior years. Super Lawyers has named Vanderbloemen as one of the Top 25 Lawyers in South Carolina across all practice areas on multiple occasions, and he has also been included Greenville Business Magazine's Legal Elite.
Vanderbloemen is an active member of the International Trademark Association, including on its Publications and Internet Committees, and he previously served on the board of the Carolina Patent Trademark & Copyright Law Association.
Clients range from small start-up companies needing initial intellectual property protection to more established global enterprises. Vanderbloemen has represented clients in numerous industries, including:
- Fitness
- Trade Associations
- Transportation
- Food, Restaurants & Hospitality
- Beverage and Breweries
- Higher Education and Athletics
- Apparel
- Medical & Veterinary
- Professional Services Firms
- Entertainment & the Arts
- Industrial and Building Products
- Software, Website, & App Development
Vanderbloemen also has experience with a wide variety of intellectual property and technology disputes, including:
- Enforcing client’s trademark rights in athletic tournament events in federal court trial;
- Protecting client’s patent rights in industrial machinery design in federal court litigation;
- Defending environmental spill containment product manufacturer against claims of patent infringement;
- Representing clients before the U.S. Trademark Trial & Appeal Board in disputes over registration of trademarks;
- Enforcing trademark and trade dress rights of fitness franchisor; and
- Issuing and responding to numerous demands to cease and desist alleged infringement of intellectual property rights.
Franchising & Distribution Networks
The firm assists brands that wish to grow through franchising, helping to set up and manage their franchise systems. The firm has specific experience working with franchisors in the fitness, personal care, and restaurant industries. The firm also works with potential franchisees desiring to join franchise systems or who may need representation in disputes with their franchisors.
Franchise relationships are strongly intertwined with trademark and other intellectual property rights, and the firm's experience in these areas reinforces its ability to represent clients in the franchise industry.
The firm is active in the franchise community, and its founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, is a committee member with the American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising, has been published as a contributing author by the Franchise Law Journal, and has presented at the Forum’s annual meeting. Best Lawyers® has included the firm in its "Best Law Firms" rankings for franchise law.
Outsourced General Counsel Solutions
One of the creative ways the firm represents clients is through its offering of outsourced general counsel solutions. Under this approach, the firm serves essentially as a client's outsourced "in-house" counsel, or even an extension of the client’s existing in-house department, and has even worked in an “embedded” capacity at the client's locations and with its team members. This approach is well-suited for entrepreneurial and emerging businesses that have regular legal matters, but that do not want or need to carry the overhead of a full-time legal department. Yet it also works well for larger clients with existing in-house legal departments needing additional support, whether on discrete projects, recurring matters, or specific areas of the law, such as intellectual property.
The firm is able to provide alternative fee arrangements that give clients predictability about their overall legal costs, all while having regular access to counsel to assist in the ongoing needs of their businesses. The firm provides a wide range of services in this area, including contract preparation, review, and negotiation; intellectual property matters, including trademark prosecution and monitoring; responding to subpoenas and other requests for information; legal project management; employment-related matters such as non-competition agreements and non-disclosure agreements; regulatory matters; and hiring and coordinating with other outside counsel, including out-of-state and foreign counsel.
Business Disputes & Resolutions
The firm represents businesses in disputes involving intellectual property, franchising, and business matters, including those involving contractual relationships, partnerships, LLCs, and business torts. The firm prides itself on working with its business clients to consider strategic and creative resolutions that can often avoid or at least mitigate the costs and distractions associated with litigation, all while remaining capable of handling disputes that require court intervention. The firm's founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, has specific experience with disputes related to:
- Intellectual property infringement
- Franchise disputes
- Purchase and supply agreements
- License agreements
- Non-competition and non-solicitation agreements
- Software and website agreements
- Disputes among business owners and joint ventures
- False advertising
Appeals, Litigation, & Local Counsel Services
In addition to the services Vanderbloemen Law Firm handles for its clients in the areas of intellectual property, franchising, and business disputes, the firm can assist in a wide range of appeals, with a particular emphasis on federal court appeals, and in working with out-of-state firms needing local counsel in South Carolina courts. The firm's founder, Tom Vanderbloemen, served as a law clerk to the Hon. William B. Traxler, Jr. at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and he has argued at the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Eleventh, and Federal Circuits. In law school, Vanderbloemen served as an assistant to the late Hon. Robinson O. Everett in an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and also served as an intern to Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Vanderbloemen is the co-editor and a contributing author of the South Carolina Bar’s treatise, “Practicing before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: A Guide from Start to Finish,” published in 2021. He was selected by Best Lawyers as 2018 Appellate Practice Lawyer of the Year for Greenville. He has spoken to the South Carolina Bar and to the South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association on appellate matters, and he is often consulted and retained by other attorneys on appeal-related matters. He has argued numerous times before the federal appellate courts, including in multiple cases resulting in published opinions.
The firm has also assisted numerous out-of-state firms needing local counsel in South Carolina, including colleagues from California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Ohio.
News and FAQs
How Long Does the Trademark Registration Process Take?
Generally speaking, it can take at least a year from applying to receive a registration at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The USPTO has a page that publishes data on its processing times. It currently shows an
What is a Letter of Protest?
A letter of protest is a filing at the Trademark Office that allows a third party to provide information to the examiner about someone else's pending trademark application. Let’s say your business becomes aware of
About Vanderbloemen Law Firm
Tom Vanderbloemen
Owner & Founder
Tom Vanderbloemen
Tom Vanderbloemen founded the firm in 2017 after over fifteen years of experience in larger firms in the Southeast. Vanderbloemen began his legal practice in Atlanta with the intellectual property and technology team of the international law firm King & Spalding LLP. After moving to Greenville in 2004, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. William B. Traxler, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practiced with Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A., where he was a shareholder and leader of the firm’s Business & Commercial practice group.
Vanderbloemen graduated from Duke University School of Law, magna cum laude, where he was a member of the Duke Law Journal. During law school, Vanderbloemen clerked for Cleary Gottlieb in its Washington, DC and Brussels, Belgium offices and worked as an intern for Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He also participated as a member of Duke University’s moot court teams in international law competitions, including a competition conducted in Europe and briefed and argued in French.
Vanderbloemen received his undergraduate degree from Davidson College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and majored in chemistry and French. He is also a proud graduate of the North Carolina School of Science & Mathematics.
Vanderbloemen is admitted to practice in South Carolina, Georgia, and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, where he is a registered patent attorney.
Leadership & Recognition
- AV-Preeminent Rating by Martindale-Hubbell®
- Super Lawyers® 2015-2024, and Top 25 Lawyer in South Carolina in 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024; 2012-2014 Rising Stars
- Selected as 2025 Lawyer of the Year for Copyright Law in Greenville by Best Lawyers®; previously selected as Greenville Lawyer of the Year for Trademark Law (2020), Copyright Law (2019, 2023), and Appellate Practice (2018)
- Greenville Business Magazine’s Legal Elite (Intellectual Property)
- Past President, Current Board Member, South Carolina Chapter of the Federal Bar Association
- International Trademark Association – Committee Member
- American Bar Association’s Forum on Franchising – Committee Member
- Co-Author, “The Untold Story of the Concurrent Use Trademark Registration,” Franchise Law Journal (Fall 2021)
- Past Secretary and Board Member, Carolina Patent Trademark & Copyright Law Association
- Co-Editor and Contributing Author, “Practicing before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: A Guide from Start to Finish” (South Carolina Bar, 2021)
- Past Chair, South Carolina Bar Trial & Appellate Advocacy Section Council
- Greenville County Bar Association – Executive Committee Member
Victoria Jaworowski
Attorney
Victoria Jaworowski
Victoria Jaworowski is a registered patent attorney and magna cum laude graduate of the Charleston School of Law, where she served on the Charleston Law Review and as President of the Intellectual Property Law Society. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina, with a major in chemical engineering and a minor in mathematics. Prior to joining the firm, Jaworowski practiced with boutique intellectual property law firms, handling patent, trademark, and copyright matters. Between undergraduate and law school, she worked as a process improvement engineer and advanced production manager at an international chemical and textiles company based in South Carolina. Jaworowski also has experience operating her own professional photography business.
Leadership & Recognition
- Charleston School of Law – magna cum laude, Dean’s List, President of Intellectual Property Law Society
- Charleston Law Review – Past Board Member and Student Works Editor
- Author, Note, “Stop the Silence: Why Bankruptcy Law Needs to Include Protection for Trademarks,” 13 Charleston L. Rev. 365, 377 (2019)
- University of South Carolina (B.S.) – Dean’s List, Palmetto Fellows Scholarship Recipient, Dean’s Scholarship Recipient
Mary Beth Morgan
Mary Beth Morgan
Mary Beth Morgan is an executive legal assistant who supports numerous aspects of the firm’s practice, including client and court communications, managing intellectual property and court filings, and firm administration. She has over 20 years of experience as a legal assistant, having worked at large law firms in South Carolina and Florida prior to joining the firm.