Linda Byrne is a partner of the Crawford Maunu Law Firm and serves as its Vice President.  Before that, Linda was a partner for 18 years at the intellectual property firm of Merchant & Gould.  Linda has significant experience in trademark opposition and cancellation proceedings, domain name administrative proceedings, disputed matters, copyright protection, and agreements.  

Euromoney Publications, the publishers of the journal Managing Intellectual Property named Linda as one of the world’s leading trademark practitioners.  She has been selected for inclusion in the publication The International Who's Who of Trademark Lawyers.  Linda was the first Minnesota trademark attorney to be named as an arbitrator of domain name disputes by the National Arbitration Forum, and she has decided many domain name disputes in that capacity.  Linda served as co-chair of Merchant & Gould’s Trademark Practice Group, and she was editor of the firm’s trademark newsletter for six years.  

Her clients span a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, publishing, pharmaceuticals, television and radio, cosmetics, and financial services.

Linda has worked on cases involving issues of cybersquatting, breach of contract, unfair competition, patent infringement, dilution, trademark infringement, advertising law, copyright infringement, and trade secrets.  Linda is the filing correspondent on over a thousand U.S. trademark applications.  Linda also has an active practice in trademark oppositions and cancellations, having handled over 275 such proceedings.

Linda has a Civil Engineering degree, with honors, from Iowa State University, and is a registered patent attorney.  Her law degree, with distinction, was received from the University of Iowa College of Law.  She is admitted to practice before several state and federal courts and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  

Linda is active in the International Trademark Association and Minnesota Women Lawyers. She belongs to the American Bar Association's Section of Patent, Trademark and Copyright Law, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association. She has made presentations to many of these organizations on topics relating to intellectual property protection.