Allison Cantor

Assistant Chief Counsel at ESPN Inc
Ranked in Media, Sports
WTR Research

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Allison Cantor's Profile

Allison Cantor is assistant chief counsel at ESPN and handles the legal matters for several ESPN business units, including programming (eg, hockey, golf, motorsports and the ESPY Awards), consumer products, communications and corporate citizenship. As trademark counsel, Ms Cantor oversees ESPN’s portfolio of approximately 1,300 trademark records worldwide, including not only ESPN’s marquee brands (eg, ESPN and SportsCenter), but also its regional and emerging brands (eg, the SEC Network and ESPN BET). Ms Cantor’s daily trademark-related responsibilities involve the clearance of new marks to be integrated into ESPN’s vast content portfolio. In addition, Ms Cantor handles ESPN’s IP enforcement and licensing.  

Ms Cantor began her career at ESPN as an associate contract administrator in affiliate sales and marketing for Disney and ESPN media networks. She spent several years there before leaving for law school. Ms Cantor received her JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she served as president of the arts, entertainment and sports law society and alumni affairs editor for the Connecticut Law Review, participated in the IP clinic and earned a certificate in IP law. After law school, Ms Cantor worked in the IP and corporate practice areas at a northeast regional law firm before returning to ESPN to join its legal department in 2011. 

Ms Cantor is active in several IP organisations, including INTA. She holds a variety of leadership roles, including serving on the executive committee for the IP section of the Connecticut Bar Association. She is also an alumnus of the Rising Leaders Program of Women in Cable Telecommunications, and is a regular speaker at the University of Connecticut School of Law and other Connecticut law schools and universities.

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