Ashley Hayes is a partner in the Firm’s, Litigation, Labor & Employment and Intellectual Property departments, and formerly served as co-chair of the Litigation Department. She represents a variety of clients including publicly and privately held corporations, municipalities, and charitable organizations. Ms. Hayes has appeared regularly in federal and state court and arbitration to advocate on her clients’ behalf. Her practice areas include all aspects of employment law, civil rights litigation, product liability litigation, trade secret and intellectual property litigation, other complex contractual disputes, and large-scale real property and water rights disputes.
Ms. Hayes also prosecutes trademark applications in the United States and abroad and has been responsible for overseeing the management and maintenance of trademark portfolios for corporate clients. Previously, Ms. Hayes served as an Interlocutory Attorney for the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), where she was responsible for the pre-trial management of inter partes proceedings before the TTAB.
Representative Matters
- Issued numerous decisions on behalf of the TTAB on a wide range of contested procedural and substantive motions, applying the Lanham Act, Trademark Rules of Practice, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and Federal Rules of Evidence.
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of gun manufacturer resulting in dismissal of Federal Court action alleging strict products liability, negligence and warranty claims.
- Represented an Upstate New York municipal water supply authority in a multi-party action including a northeastern energy supply corporation, involving water rights, contract and tort claims, and seeking damages, declaratory and injunctive relief. Obtained summary judgment on behalf of the Municipality against the energy supply corporation and successfully defended the summary judgment decision on appeal before the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, Fourth Department, and on motion for leave to appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals.
- Assisted in extinguishing a temporary restraining order and defeating a motion for a preliminary injunction precluding termination of an agreement governing the sale and service of powered industrial trucks in an action removed from New York State Supreme Court to Federal District Court.
- Defeated a summary judgment motion brought against a small business in a multimillion-dollar trade secret theft case brought in Federal Court.
- Successfully negotiated the resolution of a large-scale real property dispute involving the validity and enforceability of historic restrictive covenants running with real property surrounding an Upstate New York lake utilized as the water supply source for a nearby city.
- Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a charitable sports-related organization dismissing claimed violations of New York’s Civil Rights Laws arising out of the promotion of a sporting event using a public figure’s likeness and image.
- Assisted in obtaining a defense jury verdict for a medical device manufacturer on a $26 million tortious interference action tried in Federal Court in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
- Assisted in obtaining summary judgment in the Western District of Pennsylvania, which dismissed millions of dollars in anti-trust claims. Assisted in defending the summary judgment decision on an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
- Successfully opposed class action certification in an action brought against a leasing company arising out of an automatic renewal provision in an equipment lease.
- Obtained the reversal of the trial court’s denial of summary judgment on behalf of a leasing company arising out of an automatic renewal provision in a mobile phone equipment lease, resulting in case dismissal.
- Obtained an arbitration award on behalf of an owner and a corporate entity providing medical services dismissing breach of contract, unjust enrichment and labor law claims brought by a formerly employed doctor.
- Assisted in obtaining the dismissal of a contract and tort claims brought by a state of Washington distributor against a New York manufacturer in Federal Court in the Western District of Washington.
- Negotiated the successful resolution on behalf of an automotive manufacturer on claims for damages arising out of an equipment manufacturer’s failure to provide special-purpose machines meeting contract specifications, requirements and performance criteria.
- Negotiated the successful resolution on behalf of a national indoor air quality training organization for copyright infringement and tort claims arising out of the unauthorized use of its materials created to train and educate indoor air quality industry professionals.
- Obtained summary judgment entitling a commercial laundry equipment manufacturer to balance due on a commercial laundry system over counterclaims for a breach of warranty found barred by the terms of the manufacturer’s limited warranty. Successfully defended the summary judgment decision on appeal to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department.
- Assisted in obtaining summary judgment of non-infringement on a patent infringement claim brought against a New York manufacturer by a German competitor.
