On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overruled a six year-old case setting forth the standard for finding fraud in trademark registrations.

In re Bose Corp., No. 2008-1448, slip op. (Fed. Cir. Aug. 31, 2009). In Medinol Ltd. v. Neuro Vasx Inc., 67 U.S.P.Q.2d 1205 (T.T.A.B. 2003), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the "Board") held that "[a] trademark applicant commits fraud in procuring a registration when it makes material representations of fact ... which it knows or should know to be false or misleading." (emphasis added.) In overruling this decision, the Court rejected the wording "should know," since this language permitted findings of fraud in cases of mere negligence, as opposed to cases involving willful intent to deceive. As the Court stated...