Brittany L. Kulwicki Wheeler

Britt works closely with clients ranging from emerging businesses to multinational corporations to build, strengthen, and safeguard their trademarks through routinely conducting clearance searching, preparing and prosecuting new applications, and maintaining and enforcing global trademark portfolios.

She manages domestic and international opposition, cancellation, and invalidation proceedings, collaborating closely with international counsel where necessary, to protect and enforce her clients’ trademark rights worldwide. Her work includes developing strategy, preparing pleadings and evidentiary submissions, and navigating complex procedural and substantive issues to secure favorable outcomes for trademark owners.

Britt has experience drafting consent and coexistence agreements, enabling her clients to efficiently resolve conflicts, eliminate obstacles to registration, and minimize the risk of marketplace disputes while expanding their brands’ reach. Additionally, she regularly drafts brand-use guidelines and negotiates license agreements, commercially tailoring them to protect her clients’ trademark integrity and goodwill, while supporting business growth and collaborations.

She frequently conducts trademark due diligence related to corporate transactions, including evaluating the strength and scope of trademark protection; assessing chain-of-title issues; identifying infringement and enforcement risks; reviewing agreements affecting trademark rights; and advising clients on strategies to mitigate risk and preserve brand value during acquisitions and other commercial deals.

Britt is committed to providing responsive, practical, and business-minded trademark counsel that helps clients launch, grow, and protect their brands with confidence.

In addition to her trademark practice, Britt is also a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. She tackles complex intellectual property issues for innovative domestic and international companies, and has significant experience in the chemical and biological arts for worldwide fragrance, flavor, and construction chemical businesses. Beyond routine patent prosecution, Britt also assists clients regarding patentability, validity, infringement, and freedom to operate analyses.

Britt joined Calfee in 2023 from a Cleveland-area boutique intellectual property law firm, where she served as an intellectual property attorney.

Britt earned her J.D., magna cum laude, and a certificate in Intellectual Property Law and Technology from The University of Akron School of Law. She served on the Law Review as an assistant editor of the Intellectual Property Edition and as the associate editor of Intellectual Property Student Writing. She earned her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Philosophy and a certificate in Bioethics from Cleveland State University.

Honors & Recognitions

• Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch, Intellectual Property Law (2025-2026); Patent Law (2026)
• CALI Award - Patent Law & Policy

Education

J.D., magna cum laude, Intellectual Property Law certificate, The University of Akron School of Law, 2021

B.S., Biology, minor in Philosophy, certificate in Bioethics, Cleveland State University, 2017

A.S. and A.A., Lorain County Community College, 2015

Experience

• Calfee serves as primary IP counsel for a publicly traded, Fortune 1000 manufacturing company and its operating companies with regard to IP clearance and right-to-use and non-infringement analyses and opinions. With regard to procurement, we provide patentability and registrability analyses and opinions. We also prepare, file, and prosecute patent and trademark applications. We also are and have been involved as counsel on several IP litigations for the company. (2024)
• Calfee represents a multibillion-dollar international manufacturer in domestic and foreign patent litigation, patent and trademark prosecution, and IP strategy. We also provide management and strategy services for its patent and trademark portfolios and advise on IP strategy. Calfee is essentially the client’s “go-to” intellectual property counsel on all IP matters. (2024)
• Calfee handles a portion of a publicly traded, Fortune 100 financial service company client's domestic and international trademark portfolio, including clearance, registration and maintenance work, transactional matters, and enforcement work. (2024)

Professional & Community

• International Trademark Association (INTA), Member
  • Rising Practitioners Committee, Member (2026-2027)
• Cleveland Intellectual Property Law Association (CIPLA), Member
  • Trademark and Unfair Competition Committee Chair (2026)
  • Public Relations Chair (2024-2025)
• Ladder Down Cleveland, Class of 2026

Scientific Experience

GENBANK I NATIONAL CENTER FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY AND INFORMATION

Isolated and identified the following genes through extraction, centrifugation, gel electrophoresis, and comparative genotyping through GenBank:

• AmbT-1530 Ragweed male flower and pollen cDNA library Ambrosia trifida cDNA clone BU-R-1530 5 – similar to Exportin-1 Protein, mRNA sequence
• AmbT-1529 Ragweed male flower and pollen cDNA library Ambrosia trifida cDNA clone BU-R-1529 5 – similar to Lipoprotein, mRNA sequence
• AmbT-1528 Ragweed male flower and pollen cDNA library Ambrosia trifida cDNA clone BU-R-1528 5 – similar to Signal Recognition Particle 14kDa Protein, mRNA sequence