The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and integrations in recent years has sent sepia-toned twentieth-century legal doctrines scrambling to keep up with decidedly technicolor twenty-first century technology....more
Luxury goods titan Hermès has been handed a major victory in its pioneering lawsuit involving trademark infringement through non-fungible tokens (“NFTs”). A federal jury in Manhattan recently found that an artist’s NFT...more
Suppressing negative customer reviews may lead to costly consequences. Online fashion retailer Fashion Nova recently settled the Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC”) allegations that the company blocked negative online reviews...more
The last year has seen urgent discussions concerning racism, discrimination, police violence, inequality, and social justice come to the forefront of life in the United States. Corporate America – and its brands – responded...more
4/21/2021
/ Abandonment ,
Black Lives Matter ,
Corporate Branding ,
Corporate Culture ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Human Rights ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Matal v Tam ,
Race Discrimination ,
Race Relations ,
Rebranding ,
Social Media ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and the act was signed into law on December 27, 2020. But don’t let the bland title fool you. Buried among the government funding and coronavirus...more
On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and the act was signed into law on December 27, 2020. But don’t let the bland title fool you. ...more
In a case “test[ing] the limits of the extraterritorial application of the Copyright and Lanham Acts,” the D.C. Circuit affirms the dismissal of design-your-own pizza restaurant &pizza’s lawsuit against an Edinburgh-based...more
The D.C. Circuit affirms a Copyright Royalty Board decision to sanction a copyright royalty collections agent by preventing the agent from pursuing a number of its royalty claims after the agent claimed to represent a...more
The Ninth Circuit rules in favor of furniture designer Herman Miller in its trade dress infringement suit against a copycat manufacturer of knockoff Eames and Aeron office chairs. The court affirms a jury finding that the...more
The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) issues new guidance for trademark applications covering certain cheese and processed meat products when an applied-for mark includes geographic wording that does not...more
The United States Supreme Court holds that adding a top-level domain, like “.com”, to an otherwise generic term does not automatically result in a generic composite, and that a genericness determination must consider the...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
The United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announces a new prioritized trademark examination program for certain trademark applications covering COVID-19 related products and services. ...more
As we all know – and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) continues to emphasize – there are no scientifically proven products that treat or prevent the COVID-19 virus....more
As the novel coronavirus crisis continues to escalate, the demand for hygienic products such as hand sanitizer has dramatically increased. In response, many businesses, such as food and industrial and beverage alcohol...more
Consumer-facing companies are increasingly utilizing social media influencers to get their advertising to targeted audiences and to learn how their products are working for real people. This innovative form of advertising is...more
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released new guidance regarding influencer marketing. The FTC breaks down the basics of advertising disclosures for social media influencers through a series of do’s and don’t’s as to how,...more
11/21/2019
/ Advertising ,
Brand ,
Celebrity Endorsements ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Endorsements ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
FTC Endorsement Guidelines ,
Influencers ,
Marketing ,
Online Endorsements ,
Social Media ,
Websites
The Central District of California recently sank a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Walt Disney Company’s Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, finding that numerous elements of the Plaintiffs’ allegedly similar...more
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court announced its opinion in Iancu v. Brunetti, holding that the Lanham Act’s provisions barring the registration of “scandalous” or “immoral” trademarks are unconstitutional under the First...more
6/25/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Brand owners seeking to register cannabis-related trademarks take note: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued guidance regarding the effects of the 2018 Farm Bill on the registration of trademarks for...more
6/4/2019
/ Brand ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Farm Bill ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
GRAS ,
Hemp ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marijuana-Infused Edibles ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that bankrupt trademark licensors cannot use federal bankruptcy law to rescind the rights of their trademark licensees to continue use of duly licensed trademarks....more
5/30/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
The maker of the Tieks ballet flat Gavrieli Brands walked away with over $2.1 million when a federal jury found Soto Massini’s competing designs infringed on Tieks’ patents and trade dress....more
5/14/2019
/ Design Patent ,
False Advertising ,
Fashion Branding ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Trade Dress ,
Unjust Enrichment ,
Willful Infringement
Many food and beverage companies are assessing the use of hemp-derived ingredients in their products in light of the 2018 Farm Bill provisions excluding “hemp” from the definition of marijuana under the federal Controlled...more
The Northern District of California recently released an order that sheds new light on how courts grapple with the constantly-increasing use of trademarks as hashtags....more
For any baseball fans already preparing to capitalize when their favorite team wins their next World Series game, you may strike out before getting up to bat at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) in the United...more
Recently, an interdisciplinary team from our IPMT and Food Regulatory practices discussed a pending proposed rulemaking from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the primary federal agency that regulates...more