Tennell Lockett

Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property

Tennell Lockett is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Townsend & Lockett, LLC, where he serves as the firm’s senior strategic leader and principal advisor to Fortune 500 and Fortune Global 500 companies navigating high-stakes legal, intellectual property, and business challenges. He chairs both the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group and its Litigation Practice Group — dual leadership roles that reflect a career spent at the convergence of complex dispute resolution and enterprise-level legal strategy.

Today, Tennell functions as Outside General Counsel to major corporations, advising C-suite executives and boards on the full range of legal matters that shape business trajectory — from bet-the-company litigation and global IP portfolio strategy to commercial disputes, regulatory exposure, and corporate governance. His clients value him not as a specialist they call for a single case, but as a standing strategic partner who understands the entirety of their business and anticipates risk before it materializes.

That breadth of perspective was forged in one of the most demanding arenas in American law: complex patent litigation. Tennell spent the formative years of his career litigating high-stakes patent infringement cases for Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies, including multiple successful trials before the International Trade Commission. He honed his practice at Alston & Bird LLP, where he represented clients ranging from global corporations to sole inventors in disputes involving sophisticated technologies and multimillion-dollar exposure. The analytical discipline and courtroom instincts developed during that period remain the foundation of everything he does, whether he is managing a multinational trademark portfolio, steering a corporation through bet-the-company commercial litigation, or counseling a board through a strategic inflection point.

Tennell continues to maintain an active intellectual property practice, overseeing the prosecution, protection, and enforcement of trademark and patent portfolios for clients across industries and geographies. His experience spans TTAB proceedings, domain name and internet disputes, IP licensing and technology transactions, and the strategic management of nationally and internationally recognized brand portfolios.

Tennell has been published in Alston & Bird’s Federal Circuit Annual Review (Aspen Publishers) and the IP Links newsletter of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section. He has been admitted pro hac vice in Alabama, New Jersey, Texas, and South Carolina. Tennell served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Legal Services Program. 

  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
  • U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia
  • U.S. District Court of the Middle District of Georgia
  • U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Georgia
  • Supreme Court of Georgia
  • State of Georgia
  • 1998
    • Bachelor’s Degree, Morehouse College,
      summa cum laude
  •  2001
    • J.D., The University of California at
      Berkeley

Be genuine. Be remarkable. Be worth connecting with.

Seth Godin
  • Akamai Technologies, Inc., et al. v. Limelight Networks, Inc., Case No. 2009-1372, -1380, -1416, -1417 (Fed. Cir.) (patent appeal representing Amici Curiae)
  • Draft product development agreement and EHR Software License Agreement for national electronic health record service provider
  • Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation v. Cisco Systems, Inc., Case No. 2015-1066 (Fed. Cir.) (patent appeal representing Amici Curiae)
  • MiMedx Group, Inc. v. Liventa Bioscience, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:14-cv-01178-MHC (U.S.D.C. Northern Dist. Georgia) (patent litigation)
  • TPI Holdings, Inc. et al v. B2Betrader LLC, Case No. 1:12-cv-01584-RLV (U.S.D.C. Northern Dist. Georgia) (trademark and Lanham Act case)
  • In re Certain 3G Mobile Handsets and Components Thereof, Inv. No. 337-TA-613 (Int’l Trade Commission) (ITC patent litigation)
  • Board Member, Georgia Legal Services Program Board of Directors
  • President, Kiwanis Club of Northside Atlanta
  • National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, IP Programs Chair
  • Member, Atlanta IP Inn of Court – Barrister
  • Member, Atlanta Bar Association (Intellectual Property Section)
  • Volunteer, Hillside Children Center Inpatient Birthday Cake Program
  • Youth Leader, Bethel Family Church (2003-2015)

  • Alston & Bird, LLP, 2001-2010

Get in touch with our experts

Talk to an Expert

(404) 870-8501

We’re Social