Multiple trademark owners have contacted Blank Rome to say that, starting this month, scam artists have contacted them by telephone pretending to be the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). The scam artists claim to be...more
The Russian government has issued regulations authorizing importation into Russia of specified luxury items without the consent of the relevant trademark owners, in an apparent effort to circumvent Western sanctions...more
Over the past year, clients have experienced an increase in “copyright trolling,” which refers to the practice by some plaintiff law firms of using algorithms or other digital fingerprint technology to search or “troll” for...more
In an 8-1 decision delivered by Justice Ginsburg, the Supreme Court declined to adopt a per se rule that combining a generic term with “.com” necessarily yields a generic mark ineligible for federal trademark registration....more
7/9/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Descriptive Trademarks ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
Trademark infringement defendants often seek to downplay their liability for relinquishing ill-gotten gains with a defense that amounts to a simple plea: “We didn’t mean to do it.” Expressing little concern, however, for...more
4/28/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
Pink insulation, green tractors, robins-egg blue jewelry boxes—they all have something in common: recognizable colors that many associate with products. But can such colors be registered as trademarks and, if so, when? On...more
On March 31, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced that it was using the authority provided to it under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ( the “CARES Act”) to extend...more
On Monday, March 16, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) announced that it will consider the coronavirus pandemic to constitute an “extraordinary situation” within the meaning of the relevant patent...more
According to a recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the words of a U.S. design patent claim can limit the scope of the claimed design, and should not be ignored in the claim construction...more
The Supreme Court recently limited the ability of debtors to use contract rejection in bankruptcy to shed unwanted trademark licensees. But the Court acknowledged that the result could change if the trademark licensing...more
5/29/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Popular ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
Cheating in video games is nothing new. But the methods by which game developers now seek to punish such conduct are changing.
Recently, developers have tried combating cheating by filing civil lawsuits under federal...more
Action Item: This alert provides an overview of important new changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) portion of U.S. copyright law that impact online service providers (“OSPs)—including countless websites,...more