The Supreme Court held June 30, 2020, in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., that a generic term combined with a generic internet-domain suffix is not per se ineligible for trademark registration....more
7/7/2020
/ 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
On June 15, 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced the creation of a second COVID-19 Prioritized Examination Pilot Program, this time for COVID-19 related trademark and service mark...more
On May 8, 2020, the United States Copyright Office published an Interim Rule and Request for Comment delineating a new definition for the term “secure test” as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic. ...more
On April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and resolved a split among the circuit courts by holding that a finding of willful infringement is not a prerequisite to...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
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has extended trademark registration deadlines falling between March 27 and April 30, 2020. ...more
The Supreme Court held in Allen v. Cooper that legislation enacted by Congress revoking the sovereign immunity of states for acts of copyright infringement is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court reasoned that Article 1 of the...more
3/24/2020
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
While it always has been advisable to seek the assistance of an experienced trademark attorney to handle trademark matters, beginning August 3, 2019 (Effective Date), federal trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to...more
7/10/2019
/ Foreign Trademark ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Legal Representatives ,
Madrid Protocol ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The Supreme Court unanimously held on June 24, 2019, that the Lanham Act’s prohibition on registering “immoral” trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) infringes upon the First Amendment because such a...more
6/27/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
The Supreme Court held this week that a debtor-licensor’s rejection of a trademark licensing agreement as an executory contract pursuant to section 365(a) of the Bankruptcy Code does not terminate the licensee’s rights to use...more
5/22/2019
/ Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Certiorari ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
IP License ,
License Termination ,
Licensees ,
Manufacturers ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Trademark Licenses
In two unanimous opinions, the Supreme Court on March 4, 2019, clarified two important issues under the Copyright Act—in both cases, based on a strict reading of the relevant text. ...more
3/6/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Exhaustion ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Registration ,
Damages ,
Expert Fees ,
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC ,
Judicial Discretion ,
Litigation Fees & Costs ,
Prevailing Party ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Rimini Street Inc v Oracle USA Inc ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniformity