It is generally understood that trademark law protects against a third party’s use of your mark or a confusingly similar mark to mislead consumers into thinking goods manufactured by someone else were made by your company....more
In a decision issued on June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a generic word combined with “.com,” such as Booking.com, is entitled to federal registration if consumers perceive the combined mark as a non-generic brand...more
7/1/2020
/ 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
Under Section 1117(a) of the Trademark Act, courts may award the plaintiff's lost profits or the defendant's profits resulting from a violation of the statute. The Supreme Court decided today that while a defendant's mental...more
4/23/2020
/ Appeals ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Certiorari ,
Disgorgement ,
Lanham Act ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Willful Infringement
Earlier this month in Abbott Laboratories v. Adelphia Supply USA et al, the Second Circuit affirmed a district court's grant of a preliminary injunction halting the alleged sale of gray-good diabetes test strips made by...more
On February 29, 2016, the Supreme Court declined to review a Ninth Circuit decision holding that there was no likelihood of confusion, and therefore no trademark infringement, where Amazon.com responded to consumer searches...more
The federal Trademark Act (the Lanham Act) instructs that if an unsuccessful trademark applicant appeals a refusal to register in federal district court, the applicant must name the Director of the U.S. Patent & Trademark...more
6/12/2015
/ American Rule ,
Attorney's Fees ,
De Novo Standard of Review ,
Lanham Act ,
Legal Fees ,
Trademark Act ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Venue
As reported in our September 23 Client Alert, the Supreme Court is set to hear argument on December 2 on the issue of whether likelihood of confusion findings by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) are entitled to...more
Following a series of recent appellate decisions across the spectrum of intellectual property disciplines, including the fields of patent, copyright and trade secrets, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that...more
8/29/2014
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Corporate Counsel ,
eBay ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Lanham Act ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Popular ,
Trade Secrets
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court resolved a circuit split on the crucial issue of who has standing to sue for false advertising under the Lanham Act. In a unanimous decision authored by Justice Scalia, the Court held that to...more
On June 3, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the certiorari petition of Lexmark International Inc. ("Lexmark"). Lexmark sought cert to resolve a three-way split among the federal circuit courts regarding how to determine whether...more
Lanham Act false advertising law is largely consistent among the various federal circuit courts. However, one area of Lanham Act jurisprudence where the federal appellate courts do not see eye-to-eye concerns who has standing...more