Since 2017, Owen J. McKeon has been the VP of US Legal and Government Relations (US General Counsel) for Scandinavian Tobacco Group, a global manufacturer of handmade premium and machine rolled cigars and traditional pipe tobacco, with iconic cigar and pipe brands including COHIBA, Macanudo, Partagas, Punch, Captain Black, CigarsInternational.com. The company is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is a publicly listed Company on NASDAQ Copenhagen.

Prior to going inhouse, Mr. McKeon was most recently a partner in FisherBroyles’ Washington D.C. and New Jersey offices, and had previously been a partner at Gordon Rees, Gibbons PC and Robertson, Freilich, Bruno & Cohen. His private practice focused on counseling and representing corporate clients in a wide variety of matters and commercial disputes, with an emphasis on intellectual property protection. Over the course of his career, Mr. McKeon has represented diverse clients in state and federal courts nationwide, from start-ups to large multinational corporations. He prides himself on his ability to creatively and pragmatically meet these challenges, at all times guided by a clients' unique circumstances and business objectives.

A significant portion of Mr. McKeon’s practice was focused on aggressively protecting clients from the infringement and dilution of their trademarks, piracy of their creative works, and misappropriation of their trade secrets and confidential proprietary information. He counsels and represents clients with regard to intellectual property issues involving trademarks, brand protection and anti-counterfeiting, trade secrets, copyrights, unfair competition and internet law. In addition to his intellectual property experience, Mr. McKeon also has a broad range of experience representing clients in litigation and internal investigations involving a myriad of substantive legal issues, running the gamut from antitrust to data protection and privacy.

Mr. McKeon’s practice also involved assisting clients with the development and implementation of comprehensive programs designed to protect their valuable intellectual property and brands, programs tailored to the individual client’s goals and means. In the areas of IP enforcement and anti-counterfeiting, he has developed and implemented strategies to effectively deter and combat infringers. In addition to Mr. McKeon’s counseling and litigation experience, he has over a decade of experience overseeing the investigation of infringers and counterfeiters, regularly working with a team of private investigative professionals to identify the sources of infringing or counterfeit goods throughout the world. Further, when the infringement or misappropriation of client intellectual property constitutes a crime, Mr. McKeon has experience coordinating with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in an effort to refer matters for criminal investigation and prosecution.

In the course of his career, Mr. McKeon represented clients from many industries, including luxury goods, apparel, cosmetics and fragrances, household products, tobacco products, restaurant and food, pharmaceuticals, and music publishing.

His representative clients while in private practice included:

• General Cigar Company, Inc.
• Swedish Match North America
• Scandinavian Tobacco Group Lane Ltd.
• Club Macanudo, Inc.
• Cigars International, Inc.
• Alcoa
• Viacom

Speaking Engagements

Panelist, Food and Drug Law Institute, Annual Enforcement, Litigation, and Compliance Conference, “FDA Regulated Products: Understanding & Combating Counterfeiters.,” Washington D.C., December 9, 2014.

Panelist, Personal Care Products Council, 2014 Legal and Regulatory Conference, “Combating Counterfeiters – Protecting Your Company’s Customer and The Bottom Line,” New Orleans, LA, April 15, 2014.

Panelist, New Jersey Association of Corporate Counsel, “US Trade Secrets Law: Insights for Corporate Counsel,” Whippany, NJ. September 20, 2013

Moderator and Panelist, Seton Hall Law School Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology, “Managing Counterfeiting Issues In The Pharmaceutical Industry,” Newark, NJ. June 18, 2013

Speaker, Association for Corporate Growth New Jersey, “Anti-Counterfeiting: Strategies to Protect Your Brands and Prevent the Counterfeiting of Your Products,” Iselin, NJ. October 19, 2010