Professional Biography

William Cheever Rava Partner

  • Seattle

    D +1.206.359.6338

    F +1.206.359.9000

    Seattle

    1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900

    Seattle, WA 98101-3099

    +1.206.359.6338

    WRava@perkinscoie.com

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Overview

Experience

News

Insights

  • 09.10.2014
    Inside Views: The Perfect Package: A Checklist To Avoid Legal Challenges
    Articles
  • 07.09.2014
    The Perfect Package: A Checklist to Avoid Legal Challenges
    Updates
    Your product teams surely have already finalized their lineup of holiday winners, the new gizmos and must-have widgets that you hope end up on everyone’s wish lists.
  • 09.13.2011
    Hidden IP: Take a 360º View of Retail and Consumer Product-Related Intellectual Property Risks and Opportunities This Holiday Season
    Articles

    iPFrontline.com

  • 08.23.2011
    Protecting Your Brand in the New .XXX Domain
    Updates
    There have been many recent changes in the world of domain names.  This is the fourth in a series of updates on these issues.  It is intended to keep you informed about issues that are important to brand owners and any others with a significant web presence.
  • 07.26.2011
    Hidden IP: Take a 360º View of Retail and Consumer Product-Related Intellectual Property Risks and Opportunities This Holiday Season
    Updates
    All of the tools and tricks you will use this holiday season to catch consumers' eyes and capture their dollars will likely involve intellectual property (IP) rights. New products (patents? copyrights?) with catchy names (trademarks?) and bright packaging (trade dress?) supported by huge advertising campaigns (more copyrights?) are distributed through new channels to attract new customers (trade secrets?). You've registered your trademarks and copyrights and thought about whether you have any patentable inventions. But your IP rights are implicated in many other areas of your business, especially during the holiday season.
  • 06.30.2011
    .Pepsi and .Soda: Are You Ready for the Coming Expansion of Domain Name Space? Legal and Practical Issues for In-House Counsel and Brand Managers
    Updates
    In a matter of months, the amount of "Internet real estate"—which has been static for the past several years—will expand dramatically. Companies, organizations, cities and others will be able to apply to ICANN to launch new domain spaces using brand names (for example, .nike), generic terms (such as .shoes) and locations (such as .nyc).
  • 10.08.2010
    Keyword Advertising Update – Navigating Unsettled Waters to Protect Your Mark and Promote Your Business
    Updates
    When consumers type your brand names into an Internet search engine this holiday season, do you expect that your website or the stores that sell your product would be at the top of the results list?  They might.  But the first link could direct those consumers to your fiercest competitor's site.
  • 10.01.2009
    Combating Counterfeiting, Piracy and Gray-Market Goods
    Updates
    Remember the hype surrounding Tickle Me Elmo in 1996, Sony's Playstation in 1995 and, if you're old enough, the Cabbage Patch Kids in 1986?  Each holiday season features new "must-have" gifts—that toy your child just cannot live without or that next generation video game or console or that one special pair of boots.
  • 10.05.2023
    Litigation Update – Game IP Enforcement
    Speaking Engagements
  • 09.22.2023
    IP Protection in the Cannabis Industry
    Speaking Engagements
    Cannabis Industry General Counsel Roundtable / Denver, CO
  • 05.18.2022
    A Crash Course in Copyright and Trademark Protection
    Speaking Engagements
  • 08.27.2019
    Overview of Critical Legal Issues for Video Game Startups
    Speaking Engagements
    Panelist
    PAX DEV / Seattle, WA
  • 03.10.2017
    Trademark Enforcement in the Expanded gTLD Universe
    Speaking Engagements
    WSBA Intellectual Property Section
    22nd Annual Intellectual Property Institute / Seattle, WA
  • 11.28.2016
    Slants, R-skins and the Lanham Act: Disparaging Trademarks and the 1st Amendment
    Speaking Engagements
    Panelist
    Microsoft CLE Symposium
  • 10.2016
    Voter Protection Training
    Speaking Engagements
    Seattle, WA
  • 09.26.2015
    Endorsements and Testimonials
    Speaking Engagements

    Panelist
    McCarthy Symposium: Trademark Law and Its Challenges 2015 / San Francisco, CA

  • 03.14.2014
    Trademark Law and the Regulation of Search: Tales from the Keyword Trenches
    Speaking Engagements
    Panelist
    McCarthy Symposium: The Regulation of Search / Oxford, U.K.
  • What Is a Trade Secret?

    A company looking to protect its own trade secrets or manage risk involving others’ trade secrets must first consider whether company information qualifies as a trade secret. Often a threshold issue in litigation, this is also an important question for companies and people to consider when entrusted with access to the information of others. Most... Continue Reading…

RELATED INFORMATION

Bar and Court Admissions

  • Washington
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

Education

  • Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, J.D., cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1998, Note and Comment Editor, Northwestern University Law Review
  • Harvard University, B.A., Government, magna cum laude, 1991
Professional Biography

William Cheever Rava Partner

Firmwide Chair, Trademark, Copyright and Trade Secret Litigation Practice

  • Seattle

    D +1.206.359.6338

    F +1.206.359.9000

    Seattle

    1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900

    Seattle, WA 98101-3099

    +1.206.359.6338

    WRava@perkinscoie.com

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Overview

Will Rava has extensive experience with election and political law. He has been involved in three statewide recounts (Washington Senator Cantwell in 2000, Washington Governor Gregoire in 2004, and Minnesota Senator Franken in 2008), managed Washington legislative recounts in 2008 and 2010, and advised other candidates on preparing for and participating in recounts. He managed the trial preparation war rooms for the related Washington gubernatorial election contest in 2005 (Gregoire) and the Minnesota U.S. Senate election contest in 2009 (Franken). He has recently represented public officials subject to recall petitions under Washington law and several clients in compliance investigations and litigation with the Washington Public Disclosure Commission. Will regularly counsels campaigns, political parties and political consultants on a variety of legal issues, including independent expenditure regulations, campaign finance compliance, advertising and intellectual property issues; speaks on election law-related topics; and conducts voter protection trainings.

Will focuses his practice on intellectual property litigation involving trademarks, trade dress, domain names, copyrights and trade secrets. He has successfully litigated such disputes in federal courts across the country, before arbitration panels under the UDRP and before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Will also has extensive experience counseling clients in a variety of industries on intellectual property and brand protection strategies, including securing, policing, investigating and enforcing their rights, investigating and removing from the market counterfeit and other unauthorized goods, and investigating related unlawful Internet activities.  Such matters often involve requests for temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions, an area in which Will has deep experience. 

Will also has significant experience in corporate governance litigation and specifically in defending corporations and directors in shareholder derivative actions and responding to shareholder document requests and related demands.

Professional Recognition

  • Recognized in the World Trademark Review 1000—The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, 2018 – 2022, 2024
    • Washington (Silver)
  • Named Best Lawyers’ Seattle " Litigation - Intellectual Property Lawyer of the Year," 2018
  • Listed in Best Lawyers in America: Litigation - Intellectual Property, 2014 – 2024
  • Recognized as an IP Star by Managing IP, 2013, 2014, 2016 – 2022
  • Listed in Super Lawyers Magazine, "Super Lawyers," 2011 – 2021
  • Volunteer of the Year, Newcomers Resource Project of the King County Bar Association, October 2007
  • Listed in Washington Law & Politics, “Rising Stars of Washington Law,” 2004 – 2008 
  • Community Legal Services Recognition for Legal Services to the Homeless from the King County Bar Association, May 2001
  • Leadership Tomorrow, Class of 2008

Professional Leadership

  • Campaign for Equal Justice, Legal Foundation of Washington, Board Member, 2018 – present
  • International Trademark Association (INTA)
    • Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, Mediation Subcommittee, Member, 2022 - present
    • Enforcement Committee, Policy Advocacy Subcommittee, Member, 2018 – 2021
    • U.S. Legislation Subcommittee, Member 2014 – 2017; Chair, 2016 – 2017
  • King County Bar Association Community Legal Services Committee, Co-Chair, 2004 – 2006, Member, 2007 – 2010

Community Involvement

  • IslandWood, Board Member, 2015 – 2023
  • Artist Trust, Board Member, 2007 – 2013; President, 2009 – 2011
  • Ballard Youth Soccer Club, Coach, 2007 – 2016

Clerkships

  • Hon. Richard Cudahy, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, 1998 - 1999

Experience

News

Insights

RELATED INFORMATION

Bar and Court Admissions

  • Washington
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

Education

  • Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, J.D., cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1998, Note and Comment Editor, Northwestern University Law Review
  • Harvard University, B.A., Government, magna cum laude, 1991