Dora M. Peñagarícano

E-mail address: dmp@mcvpr.com
Phone number: (787) 250-5657
Fax number: (787) 759-2798

Dora M. Peñagarícano is a Capital Member in the Litigation Practice Group. She Chairs the Firm's the Retail Practice Area and Co-Chairs Intellectual Property Practice Area.

Practice Areas

She concentrates in intellectual property, products liability and commercial litigation cases.

Education

She obtained a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the Law School of the University of Puerto Rico. Before joining McConnell Valdés, Ms. Peñagarícano was a law clerk to the Hon. Wilfredo Alicea Lopez, the Hon. Pedro Lopez Oliver, and to the Hon. Arnaldo Lopez Rodriguez, Extraordinary Writs Section of the Superior Court of Puerto Rico, San Juan Part.

Admissions

Ms. Peñagarícano is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico.

Memberships

She is a member of the Puerto Rico Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and the International Trademark Association (INTA). She is also a member of its Sub-Committee on Legislation in Latin America and of its Sub-Committee on Trade Dress. In addition, she is a member of the State Department Committee in charge of drafting the new Trademarks Act of Puerto Rico and a member of the Intellectual Property Law Committee of the Puerto Rico Bar Association.

Representative Cases

• Ms. Peñagarícano won a precedent setting case in the First Circuit Court of Appeals for The Clorox Company in which the Appeals Court reversed the dismissal of a Lanham Act False advertising action brought by Clorox against Procter & Gamble. This decision, The Clorox Company Puerto Rico v. The Procter & Gamble Commercial Company, 228 F.3d 24 (1st. Cir. Oct. 3, 2000) was the first false advertisement case decided in the First Circuit.
• In 2001, Ms. Peñagarícano successfully defended against a claim of trademark infringement for its client, PGD, Inc., in the case Doral Pharmamedics v. PGD, 148 F. Supp. 2d 127 (D.P.R. 2001).
• She also won a landmark case in 1998, garnering a permanent injunction against a company illegally using the name of former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres in the first "right of publicity" action brought in Puerto Rico.
• Ms. Peñagarícano was also part of the legal team that in July 2004 obtained an injunction in favor of McNeil and against Merisant ordering the withdrawal from the Puerto Rico market of the yellow SAME artificial sweetener product, since its trade dress was a copy of the trade dress of the SPLENDA artificial sweetener product.
• In addition, Ms. Peñagarícano has successfully litigated or negotiated intellectual property claims for such clients as Aggreko, LLC, Cajun Operating Company (Church's), Carvajal, S.A., Cellstar, LTD, Century 21 of the Caribbean, ConAgra, Editorial Norma, S.A., Eurobank, Inc., Gillette/Duracell, International Hospitality, Inc., JCPenney, Jeans World, Inc., JWT, Kraft Foods, Lerie Lucca, Magritte, Inc., Mattel, McNeil, Mr. Electric Watt Savers, Inc., Oriental Bank, PGD, Pernod Ricard, Pilot, Publicaciones Puertorriqueñas, Inc., Quest Beads & Cast, Inc., South American Restaurants Corp., Tavarua Island Licensing & Trademarks, Inc., The Clorox Commercial Company, The Shell Company (PR) Ltd., United States Identification Card Systems, Inc., Valenzuela, Vitamin World, Inc., and Wells Fargo/Island Finance.

Publications

Ms. Peñagarícano has written various articles on intellectual property and has been a speaker in many Intellectual Property seminars and conferences.