Lawyers

TIMOTHY L. SKELTON

Partner — Los Angeles

EXPERIENCE

Timothy L. Skelton is a partner in our Los Angeles office. His practice covers a wide spectrum of counseling and litigation involving intellectual property and other business matters. With the costs of litigation continuing to escalate, and court dockets so crowded that cases can get postponed for years, Mr. Skelton, a former small business owner, prides himself on prompt, creative, and cost-efficient resolution of disputes and legal challenges.

Mr. Skelton advises numerous small and medium-sized businesses on contracts, regulatory compliance, risk management, labor concerns, intellectual property protection, and other issues. He has extensive experience in business litigation.

Mr. Skelton’s trademark experience includes all aspects of trademark law. He provides counseling in protection of trademark and trade dress for U.S. and foreign trademarks. Mr. Skelton has years of experience in trademark and trade dress litigation, with matters ranging from licensing disputes to trademark and trade dress infringement actions, as well as experience in domain name disputes and other Internet-related trademark and trade dress issues.

Mr. Skelton’s copyright experience includes a wide variety of infringement actions. He has resolved infringement cases involving such diverse products as feature films, recorded music, video games, costume jewelry, tabletop sculptures, consignment art work, and Web sites, with issues ranging from simple bootlegging to violation of licensing agreements to the “look and feel” of competing Web sites.

Other intellectual property areas handled by Mr. Skelton include patent litigation, trade secret litigation, antitrust, false advertising, and business defamation cases.

Mr. Skelton received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of South Carolina, and graduated cum laude from the University of San Diego School of Law, where he was a member of the San Diego Law Review and the Order of the Coif, voted USD's Most Outstanding Civil Clinic Student, and authored Internet Copyright Infringement and Service Providers: The Case for a Negotiated Rulemaking Alternative, 35 San Diego Law Review 219, Winter, 1998. Upon graduation in 1998, Mr. Skelton joined RMKB’s Los Angeles office.

Mr. Skelton is admitted to practice in all California State courts and the Federal Courts for the Central, Southern and Northern Districts of California, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Mr. Skelton, an amateur road racer and avid motorcyclist, is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, the Specialty Equipment Market Association, the Sports Car Club of America, the National Hot Rod Association, and the National Auto Sport Association. He volunteers as a BBB Auto Line warranty claim arbitrator and as a trackside tech inspector for NASA. Mr. Skelton’s automotive and motorcycle-related clients include new and used car dealers, automotive and motorcycle aftermarket distributors and manufacturers, and professional racing teams.