On March 25, 2022, the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether Andy Warhol’s “Prince Series” sufficiently transforms Lynn Goldsmith’s 1981 photograph of Prince (the “Photograph”) to qualify for the Copyright Act’s fair use...more
4/7/2022
/ Certiorari ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Fair Use ,
Fine Art ,
First Amendment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Personal Expression ,
SCOTUS ,
Transformative Use
The Lanham Act (“Act”) makes it clear that generic terms cannot be registered as trademarks. But can an online business create a protectable trademark by adding a generic top-level domain (e.g., “.com”) to an otherwise...more
5/15/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Certiorari ,
Descriptive Trademarks ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
gTLD ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
On March 23, 2020, in Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that Allen, who spent over two decades, photographing the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge, better known as the flagship for the pirate Blackbeard, cannot sue the...more
4/2/2020
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
On March 23, 2020, in Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court held that Allen, who spent over two decades, photographing the shipwreck of Queen Anne’s Revenge, better known as the flagship for the pirate Blackbeard, cannot sue the...more
4/1/2020
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
In June 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc., et al., No. 18-1233. As set forth in our previous blog post, Romag Fasteners Inc. (“Romag”) seeks to have the Court...more
11/22/2019
/ Certiorari ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Profits ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Willful Infringement
In June 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc., et al. v. Marcel Fashion Group Inc., No. 18-1086. As set forth in our prior blog posts, Lucky Brand Dungarees Inc. and related...more
10/29/2019
/ Appeals ,
Certiorari ,
Defense Strategies ,
Fashion Industry ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Inherently Distinctive ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Release Agreements ,
Res Judicata ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
In June 2019, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Allen v. Cooper, No. 18-877. The case presents a question “whether Congress validly abrogated state sovereign immunity via the Copyright Remedy...more
9/11/2019
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
On Friday, June 28, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether, in cases where a plaintiff asserts new claims, federal preclusion principles bar a defendant from raising defenses that were not actually litigated...more
7/9/2019
/ Amended Complaints ,
Appeals ,
Certiorari ,
Claim Preclusion ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Lanham Act ,
Res Judicata ,
SCOTUS ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Unfair Competition
On Friday, June 28, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide the circumstances necessary to support an award of a trademark infringer’s profits under section 35 of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a). Romag Fasteners...more
On June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari to decide whether states can claim copyright protection in annotated codes. State of Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc., No. 18-1150. ...more
6/28/2019
/ Annotated Case Law ,
Certiorari ,
Copyright ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
Federal v State Law Application ,
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Public Domain ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act