On August 18, 2023, Judge Beryl A. Howell of the US District Court for the District of Columbia issued a first-of-its-kind federal court decision in Thaler v. Perlmutter, et al., agreeing with the US Copyright Office that...more
On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., limiting the extraterritorial reach of provisions of the Lanham Act prohibiting trademark...more
7/5/2023
/ Abitron Austria GmbH v Hetronic International Inc ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Sales ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Use in Commerce
On May 18, 2023, the US Supreme Court, in a much-anticipated decision, held that portraits of the musician Prince by Andy Warhol do not constitute fair use under copyright law. The 7 – 2 decision in Andy Warhol Foundation for...more
On June 30, 2020, the United States Supreme Court decided United States Patent and Trademark Office et al. v. Booking.com B. V., handing down an important decision for those who have invested in a dot-com brand.
The issue...more
7/6/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
On April 8, 2020, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the Board) and held that multicolor designs can be inherently distinctive – and thus immediately eligible for...more
On December 11, 2019, the US Supreme Court issued a unanimous order in Peter v. NantKwest, holding that a statute allowing the USPTO to recover "expenses" for appeals of patent refusals to a district court does not allow the...more
12/13/2019
/ American Rule ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Civil Claims ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fee-Shifting ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Patent Act ,
Patent Applicants ,
Peter v NantKwest Inc ,
Prevailing Party ,
Remedies ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 145 ,
Summary Judgment ,
USPTO
On November 8, 2019, the United States Supreme Court agreed to take up a case that could potentially have a significant impact on domain name owners and those who have invested in promoting their dot-com brand. Can combining...more
On March 4, 2019, the Supreme Court held that copyright owners must wait to file an infringement suit until the Copyright Office has registered the work at issue. The decision in Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v....more
3/5/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Registration ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniformity
On January 4, 2019, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed to hear the United States Patent and Trademark Office's ("USPTO") appeal of In re Brunetti, 877 F.3d 1330 (Fed. Cir. 2017). In taking this case, it appears...more
On Wednesday March 22, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the decorative elements of a cheerleading uniform – zig-zags, stripes and chevrons – are protected under copyright law. In this 6-2 written...more
Effective February 17, 2017, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") implemented a revised rule under which USPTO examining attorneys may request additional evidence of use from registrants beyond what was...more