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United States Patent and Trademark Office Acquired Distinctiveness

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves a fundamental role in the U.S. intellectual property system by issuing patents and registering trademarks.... more +
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that serves a fundamental role in the U.S. intellectual property system by issuing patents and registering trademarks.    less -
McDermott Will & Emery

Sole Searching: Trade Dress Hopes Booted as Functional, Nondistinctive

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The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment grant in a trademark dispute, finding that the district court did not err in concluding that a subset of design elements lacked...more

Erise IP

What’s Trending in Trademarks, February 2024: Fruity Pebbles Denied Color Mark, Captain Cannabis Cancellation, Trader Joe’s vs....

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Every month, Erise’s trademark attorneys review the latest developments at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in the courts, and across the corporate world to bring you the stories that you should know about: Fruity...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

In His Trademark Era: Will Travis Kelce be Successful in Filing a Trademark Application to Protect His Name?

Is Travis Kelce’s newfound status as Taylor Swift’s boyfriend enough to meet the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) “acquired distinctiveness” standard? He plans to find out with the help of Time Person of...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - July 2023: How to Lose a Mark in 3 Ways – Part 2: Genericide

One of the signs of a healthy trademark is a certain level of distinctiveness. Distinctiveness is related to consumers’ love and recognition of a mark as an indicator of a product’s source, such that consumers trust the mark...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - July 2023

Thank you for reading the July 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we continue our three-part series that closely examines ways to lose trademark rights with a discussion of genericide. We...more

Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLC

If a Good is not a Good, then a Trademark is not a Trademark

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) adopted a new rule for evaluating whether non-syndicated news columns are “goods in trade” under the Lanham Act in In re The New York Times Company, a precedential opinion issued on...more

McDermott Will & Emery

It’s Not in the Bag: TTAB Refuses to Register Generic Handbag Design

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Ending a hard-fought three-year campaign to secure registration of a popular handbag, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial & Appeal Board designated as precedential its decision refusing registration of the...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Big Little Lies: Guidelines for Challenging Trademark Acquired Distinctiveness Claims

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For the second time, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit examined the standard for demonstrating fraud in a party’s claim of a trademark’s acquired distinctiveness for purposes of registration under Section 2(f)...more

Snell & Wilmer

Trade Dress: What It Is and How to Protect It

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I. Trade Dress Is Either a Trademark or Service Mark. “Trade dress” functions as either a trademark or service mark. A “trademark” is any word, term, phase, symbol, logo, design, shape, tag line, background, color, scent,...more

BakerHostetler

USPTO Provides Guidance in View of ‘Booking.com’

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On June 30, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States decided USPTO v. Booking.com B.V., rejecting a rule that a proposed mark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like “.com,” is...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - January 2021

[co-author: Joseph Diorio, Law Clerk] The January 2021 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses: a recent non-precedential TTAB decision on background designs; the Trademark Modernization Act;...more

Jones Day

JONES DAY TALKS®: Women in IP: 2020 in Review and a Look Toward 2021

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Jones Day's Meredith Wilkes and Anna Raimer discuss 2020's most significant developments in trademark law and preview what's to come in 2021, including possible progress in Washington on the highly anticipated Trademark...more

Mintz - Trademark & Copyright Viewpoints

U.S. Trademark Office Issues Guide on How It Will Apply the Supreme Court’s Booking.com Decision to Examination of Relevant...

As we reported in our July 7, 2020 blog post on the USPTO v. Booking.com B.V decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a proposed mark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like...more

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Supreme Court: Generic Word Combined With ‘.com’ Held Trademark Eligible

In U.S. Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., the Supreme Court held, in an 8-1 decision, that a generic word combined with the top-level domain “.com” can be a federally protectable trademark if it has secondary...more

K&L Gates LLP

Are Valentino’s Rockstud® Shoes as Distinctive as the Red Soles?

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Has Valentino stepped up enough to show that their Rockstud® design has acquired distinctiveness similar to Christian Louboutin’s red soles? In a recent response to a USPTO office action, Valentino asserted similar notoriety...more

International Lawyers Network

Generic.com — Registrable In Canada?

The U.S. Supreme Court recently confirmed that a “generic.com” term may be eligible for federal trademark registration in the U.S., in certain circumstances. We will review the relevant decisions, discuss the Canadian legal...more

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Kattison Avenue | Issue 3 - Summer 2020

Gambling With Graffiti: Using Street Art on Goods or in Advertising Comes With Significant Risks - Graffiti. Guerrilla Art. Street Art. Aerosol Art. Tagging. It appears on the sides of buildings, highway signs, boundary...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

Supreme Court: “Generic.com” Trademarks May Be Registered if Consumers Do Not Perceive Them as Generic

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The decision expands the availability of trademark protection for domain names and limits the number of terms deemed unprotectable because they are generic. Key Points: ..The addition of the .com top-level domain to an...more

Cranfill Sumner LLP

Supreme Court Rules that a Generic Term Combined with “.com” is Protectable

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Recently the Supreme Court affirmed registration on the principal register for what appeared to be a generic term. In United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V., 140 S. Ct. 2298 (2020), the Court affirmed...more

Locke Lord LLP

Supreme Court Holds that Booking.com Isn’t Generic

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In U.S. Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., the Supreme Court held that a term that combines a generic word with “.com” is not generic if consumers perceive the term to signify the source of a product and thus...more

Kilpatrick

Strategies for Cultivating Protectable Rights in, and Registering, Generic.com Marks After United States Patent and Trademark...

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On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the potential registrability in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) of a claimed trademark or service mark consisting of a generic word and a generic top-level domain...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

The Future of the “Generic.com” Trademark

The basic premise that a generic term is un-registrable is, at first glance, uncontroversial. If a key purpose of a trademark is to identify a particular source of goods or services, then it stands to reason that one cannot...more

Goulston & Storrs PC

Supreme Court Affirms "Booking.com" Trademark

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On June 30, 2020, The Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V., holding that a mark consisting of a generic term combined with “.com” is not...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Supreme Court: “Booking.com” Can Be Registered as Trademark

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By an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court rejected a per se rule by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that a generic word followed by “.com” is necessarily generic and therefore ineligible for trademark protection. U.S. Patent...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - June 2020: Breaking News: Booking.com Prevails in Genericness Challenge

The June 30th Supreme Court decision in Booking.com held that generic terms coupled with top-level domain names can be eligible for trademark registration. This decision is a win for brand owners as it reinforces how – in the...more

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