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Tara Aaron-Stelluto is a partner in the Nashville office of Barton LLP, where she practices in the areas of Cybersecurity, Data Protection and GDPR Compliance, Intellectual Property, and Business Transactions.

Tara regularly helps clients implement and test data security programs, respond to data security compromises, protect and enforce their trademarks and copyrights, and solidify and close contracts.

Her Cybersecurity and Data Protection work includes building information security policies, incident response plans, and privacy notices, and managing responses to data security events such as ransomware and email compromise cases. She counsels clients on what to expect when a security incident occurs and facilitates and leads the process through forensic investigation, proper notifications to affected individuals and responding to inquiries from regulators. Tara is a Certified Information and Privacy Professional in US and EU law and has deep experience counseling clients on the ever-changing landscape of privacy regulations and practices around the globe.

Tara’s background in intellectual property includes trademark and copyright protection, licensing and enforcement. She regularly interacts with the US Patent & Trademark Office and advises clients to efficiently obtain valuable registrations of trademarks. Her trademark clients are in industries across the board, from health care to retailers of writing instruments to commercial farmers.

Tara spent a number of years in the music industry in Nashville, helping to license “evergreen” catalogs and determine the value of a catalog for purchase of the rights. Her deep understanding of the importance of identifying and protecting intellectual property as well as appropriately drafting agreements to buy, sell, and license assets grew out of this unique experience. She prides herself on having a firm grasp of the law and the art of negotiation, can clearly identify and explain to clients the risks arising out of any particular term in an agreement, and can deliver that explanation persuasively to opposing counsel to quickly and efficiently close a deal for a client.

Tara is a known speaker and writer on both data protection and trademark law, and much of her professional development has focused on the intersection of those areas of law. She has recently submitted the second edition of her contribution to the scholarly publication from Oxford University Press entitled “Overlapping Intellectual Property” rights, about the relationship between trademark law and unfair competition in the United States. She is a frequent speaker on both trademark law and developments in data protection laws around the world.

Practices:

  • Business Transactions
  • Cybersecurity, Data Privacy, GDPR Compliance
  • Intellectual Property

Industry Experience:

  • Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations
  • Media and Publishing
  • Technology

Admissions:

  • State of Tennessee
Education:
  • University of Tennessee College of Law, J.D. – Member, Order of the Coif; Member, Law Review, 2002-2004, Phi Beta Kappa
  • Vanderbilt University, B.A.
  • University College Cork

Honors:

  • Best Lawyers from 2014 to present
  • Selected to Super Lawyers from 2020 to present; selected to Rising Stars from 2012 to 2015

Memberships:

  • Copyright Society of the South, Chairperson – 2016 to present
  • International Trademark Association, Trademark Reporter Committee – 2017 to present
  • International Association of Privacy Professionals – Member 2018
  • Nashville Bar Association, IP Section

Presentations:

  • “The Day After Tomorrow: What is the Future of Privacy in the US.” Speaker. International Association of Privacy Professionals Privacy: Security: Risk Conference. (October 2022).
  • “Privacy Laws: New Challenges for Pharma and their Brands.” Speaker. Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group. Berlin, Germany. (September 2019).
  • “GDPR and U.S. Companies.” Speaker. Digital Analytics Summit. (September 2018).
  • “GDPR One Month Later.” Speaker. Nashville Technology Council. (June 2018).
  • “Software and Copyright.” Speaker. Nashville Product Meetup. (February 2018).
  • Introduction to U.S. Copyright Law and Introduction to US Privacy Law. Speaker. Dresden University of Technology, Studies in Intellectual Property Law Summer Session. (2015-Present).
  • “Baseball, Dictators, and Mean Girls in Short Shorts: When Trademarks Overlap with Publicity Rights.” Speaker. International Trademark Association. Munich, Germany. (December 2014).

Articles:

  • Overlapping Intellectual Property Rights, 2d ed., Wilkof, Neil and Basheer, Shamnad, eds. Contributing Author. Oxford University Press. (2022).
  •  “Tennessee Sectoral Privacy Overview.” Author. OneTrust DataGuidance (September 2021).
  • “4 Privacy Law Considerations for Trademark Counsel.” Author. American Bar Association. (June 2020).
  • “GDPR and WHOIS: Is It Time to Panic.” Author. The Trademark Reporter®. 108 TMR No. 6 (November-December 2018).
  • “Concepts of Use of a Trademark Under European Union and United States Trademark Law.” Author. The Trademark Reporter®. 106 TMR No. 6 (November-December 2014).