Recently, we published an article regarding the increasing viability of cannabis related patents. See here. Sadly, the story is the opposite for federal trademarks. Last month, National Concessions Group, Inc. (“NCG”) was...more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) continues to uphold its promise to combat fraud and “protect the integrity of the U.S. trademark register” with initiatives to investigate and sanction actions before the PTO that appear...more
A June 16, 2020 precedential decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board held that Federal trademark registration is not available for food, beverages, or nutritional/dietary supplements to which hemp-derived cannibidiol...more
Unlike patents and copyrights, obtaining a federally registered trademark requires (among other things) that applicants abide by the “lawful” use in commerce requirement. In other words, the United States Patent and Trademark...more
The March 2019 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter addresses a Supreme Court ruling about suing for copyright infringement, the 2018 Farm Bill and CBD products, and lists the new gTLD Sunrise Period. In...more
On January 30, 2019, the luxury jewelry suppliers Van Cleef & Arpels filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Nice Ice Fine Jewelers, LLC (“Defendant”). Van Cleef & Arpels’...more
On July 18, 2018 the well-known luxury goods company, Cartier International AG and Cartier, a division of Richemont North America Inc. (collectively, “Cartier” or “Plaintiffs”) filed suit in the United States District Court...more
Recently, Oklahoma joined the ranks of the 30 states that have legalized medical marijuana, but the state still has work to do on just how to implement its new law. As usual, the devil is in the details. Even though Oklahoma...more
Owners of federal trademark registrations and applications have been continuously targeted by scam artists who pull owner names from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database and contact these owners...more
California was the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use. In 1996, California approved Proposition 215, the California Compassionate Use Act. Two decades later, California voters approved Proposition 64, the...more
When starting a new business or developing a new brand, business owners tend to have common trademark-related questions: Do I need a trademark registration? What rights will a registration provide? What are the associated...more
President Trump’s deep freeze of regulatory actions has delayed the effective date of new rules issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to assess and promote the accuracy of the trademark register. ...more
ALERT UPDATE: The US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) planned to implement an auditing program on February 17, 2017, which would introduce new requirements for declarations of use filed pursuant to Sections 8 or 71 of the...more
An ongoing issue for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been the number of trademark registrations where registrants do not actually use or intend to use their marks on all of the goods and services...more
On January 19, 2017 the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) published a notice in the Federal Register introducing new requirements for declarations of use in commerce filed pursuant to Sections 8 and 71 of the...more
If you have a company, a brand, a tagline, a design logo or you offer products or services to the public, you probably have a trademark that should be registered. Many clients, regardless of sophistication, do not register...more
In Partial Trademark Victory over Chinese Sportswear Company, MJ Posterizes Unauthorized User of Chinese Version of His Name - In Game 3 of the first round of the 1991 NBA Eastern Conference playoffs between the New York...more
The October 2016 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter provides an update on the Redskins trademark case, discusses a recent TTAB ruling regarding ownership of families of marks, and announces the new gTLD...more
BLACK GIRLS ROCK! and BLACK MEN ROCK Deemed Confusingly Similar - This opposition involved a straight-forward likelihood of confusion analysis. Opposer owned a registration for the mark BLACK GIRLS ROCK! for clothing and...more
1. The Difference Between a Trademark, Service Mark, and Trade Dress. A trademark is any word, term, phase, symbol, logo, design, shape, tag line, background, color, scent, sound, device, or combination thereof that...more
Once you have obtained a U.S federal trademark registration, you must take certain steps to maintain the registration or else you risk losing your trademark protection. In this article, we discuss a key step in maintaining...more
This article explains filing deadlines and document requirements for maintaining federal trademark registrations with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). The documentation for establishing proof of continued use...more
Entrepreneur and reality television star Marcus Lemonis, host of CNBC’s The Profit, has learned a tough lesson about contract law. With a business strategy that makes every lawyer cringe, Lemonis prides himself on having made...more
The Redskins Lose Again (Off the Field)- A federal District Court affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) ruling that “Redskins” cannot be registered as a trademark for use in connection with a...more