John C. McElwaine is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough focusing his practice in the cutting-edge fields of intellectual property, Internet, domain name and technology litigation and strategic counseling. In the area of litigation, Mr. McElwaine has been involved with numerous federal and state actions, as well as actions brought at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and arbitration proceedings under ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).  Mr. McElwaine has extensive experience in researching and analyzing trademark availability opinions, preparing and prosecuting trademark applications, including drafting amendments and responses to examining attorneys, and trademark strategic counseling. He has also manages, maintains and polices several large corporate and educational institution’s trademark portfolios.  His work in the area of strategic counseling involves advising technology clients on intellectual property matters, including the assignment, licensing and development of software, applications and other technology, as well as brand protection measures on the world wide web and within online social media networks.

Mr. McElwaine has published two articles in The South Carolina Lawyer. The most recent article, "Cyber Attacks," appeared in the January-February 2002 edition. This article covered different statutory and common law actions for electronic hacking and the theft of electronic information. The earlier article, "My Name, My Heritage, My Trademark Infringement Suit?" appeared in the June-August 1996 edition and discussed the often overlooked issue of trademark infringement based upon use of one’s family name. Mr. McElwaine has lectured on copyright, trademark, trade secret, Internet and technology legal issues to various organizations and for continuing legal education credit. He was a speaker at the 2005 INTA Annual Meeting on the topic of Taking and Defending Trademark Depositions. In addition to being a frequent speaker and author, Mr. McElwaine is an editor and contributor to the Firm’s monthly CYBERWATCH e-mail newsletter, which provides summaries of legal and business news related to Internet issues and e-commerce.

In 2009, Mr. McElwaine was elected to Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC) of ICANN, and from there was selected to serve on the ICANN Working Group developing the High Security Top Level Domain Zone Certification.  He also was selected to serve on the Internet Committee for the International Trademark Association (INTA) and is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) where he serves on the Intellectual Property Section’s Special Committee on Trademark and the Internet. Locally, he serves on the Board of Directors of ThinkTec, which is the Charleston Metro Area Chamber of Commerce’s organization for the promotion of high tech and information economy businesses, and he is a 2006 Graduate of the Dick Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Academy.

Mr. McElwaine earned a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1995. During law school, he earned first place in the ASCAP Nathan Burkin Memorial Competition for a paper titled, Digital Audio Technology and Copyright Law, and he was an Associate Editor of Notes and Articles for The South Carolina Environmental Law Journal. Mr. McElwaine earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History, cum laude, from the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina in 1992.