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Cognac Scores a Win for Certification Marks

Cognac, which originates from a specific region of France and is named after the commune of Cognac, is far more popular outside its native country. Indeed, according to the industry group Bureau National Interprofessional du...more

Trader Joe’s Labor Union Bags a Victory in Trademark Dispute

Trader Joe’s is a hugely popular grocery chain that has expanded from its Southern California origins to operate close to 600 stores across the United States. Although Trader Joe’s has traditionally had a reputation as an...more

Not Human Enough - District Court Rejects Copyright For AI Artwork

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the hottest topics in technology, with businesses studying how to utilize its benefits and at least some workers wondering if smarter and cheaper AI technologies will replace them. Here...more

Gruyere: Delicious Cheese But Generic Term

When you hear the word “gruyere,” what comes to mind? A bucolic region in the mountains of Switzerland? Perhaps the Gruyère region of neighboring France? Or, more likely, you think of a type of cheese....more

Copyrights, Metadata, and the “Double-Scienter Requirement” in the Eleventh Circuit

Last month, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit weighed in for the first time on the scienter requirement for copyright infringement under Section 1202(b) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or “DMCA.” In Victor...more

To Err is Human: Supreme Court Holds That Mistakes of Law in Copyright Applications Fall Under Safe Harbor

Most lawyers are familiar with the well-known legal maxim that “ignorance of the law is no excuse.” In 6-3 opinion issued on February 24, 2022, in a copyright case, the Supreme Court nonetheless held that ignorance of the law...more

Hockey League Skates To Summary Judgment Win Over Gulls

The minor hockey league ECHL iced a win over the San Diego Gulls hockey club earlier this month when a judge in the Central District of California granted ECHL’s motion for summary judgment dismissing all of the Gulls’...more

E-Commerce and Trademark Infringement: OSU Wins a Battle at the Sixth Circuit

The Ohio State Buckeyes may have lost the college football national championship to Alabama earlier this year but OSU can take some consolation from its recent victory in a trademark case before the Sixth Circuit Court of...more

A Lucky Day at the Supreme Court for Lucky Brand

Lucky Brand has emerged victorious in the latest skirmish of its nearly 20-year trademark litigation battle with Marcel Fashions, a competitor in the apparel business. In Lucky Brand Dungarees, Inc. v. Marcel Fashions Group,...more

Bong Maker Avoids Having to Cough Up Attorney’s Fees

A bong distributor with a reputation as a serial trademark plaintiff managed to persuade a Florida federal court that it should not be on the hook for the prevailing party’s attorney’s fees. In Sream Inc. et al. v. CIJ...more

Equitable Estoppel Defense Denies Lego Full Victory in Copyright Case

The world-renowned Danish toy maker Lego has scored an important (albeit partial) win in its nearly 8-year-old copyright litigation against fellow toy maker Best-Lock Construction Toys. On July 25, 2019, Judge Haight of the...more

Twombly at the TTAB – Abandonment Allegations Found Sufficient

The U.S. Supreme Court’s blockbuster rulings in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal represented a major shift in federal pleading standards. Resolution of motions to dismiss frequently turns on whether a...more

Third Circuit to Debt Collectors: “Use Your Real Name”

If you are a debt collector calling to collect a debt and don’t use your “true name,” you may have violated Section 1692e(14) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). That is one of the lessons from a recent...more

“No beer flow” – NHL sues seller of Stanley Cup-themed beer cups for trademark infringement

Back in February, we covered the trademark dispute between the U.S. Army and the Las Vegas Golden Knights professional ice hockey team. As we predicted, the Army and the Golden Knights have now settled that matter by...more

Major Companies Receive FTC Warranty Warnings

In a wake-up call to businesses that offer non-compliant consumer warranties, last week the Federal Trade Commission announced that its staff had sent warning letters to six major companies that market and sell automobiles,...more

Vegas Hockey Team Faces Off Against The U.S. Army Over Trademark Dispute

The Vegas Golden Knights, an expansion team based in Las Vegas that joined the National Hockey League (NHL) earlier this year, have had a surprisingly successful “rookie year,” both on the ice and at the box office. This...more

OCC’s Proposed Charter for Fintech Companies in Limbo

Late last year, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) announced that a proposed national charter for fintech companies is currently on hold as the OCC’s new Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting, needs...more

Law Firm Attempts to Resist Subpoena by Arguing CFPB is Unconstitutional

In the wake of last year’s (now-vacated and pending review en banc) decision by the D.C. Circuit in PHH Corp. v. Consumer Fin. Prot. Bureau, 839 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2016), the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial...more

Much Ado About Shoe Designs – Favorable Rulings for Adidas on Summary Judgment in Skechers Trademark Dispute

On August 3, 2017, the shoe manufacturer Adidas scored important legal victories in its long-running trademark dispute with the shoemaker Skechers. Adidas America, Inc. et al. v. Skechers USA, Inc. (D. Or. 2017) involved...more

A Review of the Law Governing Qualified Written Requests

Back in the summer of 2015, we published a popular post on “Qualified Written Requests,” or QWRs, which are written requests by borrowers under the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (“RESPA”) for information relating to...more

Eleventh Circuit: Arbitration Clauses Are Like Makeup – They Only Cover So Much

The Kardashians, America’s favorite celebrity family, have been having a tough time of late, with Kim Kardashian being robbed at gunpoint in her Paris apartment, and her husband Kanye West attracting criticism for his support...more

LVL XIII and Louis Vuitton Go Toe-To-Toe Over Toe Plates

In a previous post, we discussed Louis Vuitton’s unsuccessful lawsuit against My Other Bag, Inc., in which the “parody defense” was a key issue. Louis Vuitton is making trademark law news again – this time as a...more

CFPB Supervisory Highlights – January 2016 to April 2016

On June 30, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) released the twelfth edition of its Supervisory Highlights report (“Report”), which focused on supervision work completed between January and April 2016. The...more

When is an Administrative Action Barred by the Dodd-Frank Act’s Three-Year Statute of Limitations? Never, According to the CFPB

Corporate defendants are entitled to the protections afforded by statutes of limitations, which bar claims for conduct long-past and are “vital to the welfare of society.” See, e.g., Gabelli v. S.E.C., 133 S. Ct. 1216, 1221...more

Louis Vuitton and My Other Bag – Do You Get The Joke?

In a recent post, we discussed the trademark parody defense in the context of a California district court decision holding that the owner of the Superman “S” logo had adequately stated infringement claims asserted against a...more

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