Marnie Wright Barnhorst, Attorney at Law

When Marnie founded The Trademark Group in 1997 she envisioned a specialty law firm that provides clients more personal attention and superior, cost-effective service. Before becoming president of The Trademark Group, Marnie was a partner at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich. She originally practiced as a biotech patent lawyer, but turned her focus to trademark protection as she established and managed the firm’s trademark division.

Marnie has filed several thousand trademark applications in the US and throughout the world. She has handled responses to over one thousand Office Actions from trademark offices worldwide, including more than five hundred from the US Patent and Trademark Office. Marnie has also participated in over one hundred Oppositions at the US Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, resolving most and avoiding costly discovery proceedings.

She is a member of the International Trademark Association (INTA) and the Intellectual Property Section of the American Bar Association. Marnie has chaired the Trademark Section of the State Bar of California and of the Intellectual Property Section of the San Diego County Bar Association, for which she received the 1995 Leadership Award. She has also served on the editorial board of The Trademark Reporter and has taught Intellectual Property Law at UCSD and USD.

Marnie graduated cum laude with a JD from University of San Diego. She received her BA in Biology and Chemistry from Indiana University and an MS in Genetics from San Diego State University. Married forty years, Marnie and her husband, also a lawyer, have four children: a doctor, a musician and two lawyers who practice at The Trademark Group. They also have five grandchildren. Marnie loves to be challenged on the tennis court, travel the world, research her family’s genealogy and relax with good food and wine.