Stephen Vaughn

Stephen is a member of the firm’s Commercial, Intellectual Property, and Real Estate litigation groups. He serves as the local litigation chair for Atlanta. Stephen represents clients involved in a wide variety of complex, high-exposure litigation matters.

In the area of intellectual property, Stephen has represented clients in a variety of matters, including copyright litigation, such as claims over the infringement, authorship, and ownership of software, literary, and graphical works; trademark disputes, including infringement and dilution claims in Federal courts and prosecution and opposition proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board; advertising- and publication-related litigation, including false advertising, unfair competition, and defamation; domain name (cybersquatting) disputes in both Federal courts and under ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Stephen also has deep experience in corporate litigation, including post-M&A disputes such as rep and warranty litigation and earnout disputes. He regularly represents companies and their directors and officers in corporate governance matters, and has helped clients navigate many “business divorces”, whether involving litigation or otherwise. He also represents companies in a wide range of complex commercial disputes, including contractual matters, claims arising under the Uniform Commercial Code, and business disputes involving fraud, trade secret misappropriation, employee restrictive covenants, and all manner of business torts.

• Defended a private equity firm against numerous claims against it, including negligent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty, arising from one of its portfolio companies.
• Represented numerous parties to M&A agreements in connection with earnout disputes, including before arbitrators and independent accounting firms.
• Represented numerous product manufacturers in connection with disputes against vendors and contractors.
• Represented both franchisors and franchisees in disputes arising under franchise agreements, including trademark matters.
• Represented a manufacturer of consumer electronic equipment involved in a seven-figure dispute with a purchaser, yielding a favorable settlement for the client.
• Defended a financial institution in connection with defense of lender liability claims in arbitration, resulting in a complete defense award.
• Defended a software company against shareholder derivative actions in Georgia and Delaware.
• Represented an automobile services company in connection with an earnout dispute related to an asset sale.
• Represented an architectural firm in connection with trademark infringement claims.
• Represented a financial services firm in connection with trademark infringement and cybersquatting claims.
• Represented a natural gas company in connection with fraud and other business tort claims resulting from an unconsummated merger.
• Represented numerous real estate developers in connection with investor disputes.
• Represented the administrative agent for a group of lenders in connection with numerous lender liability disputes.
• Defended a software services company against claims of copyright infringement.