On June 8, 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously decided the trademark parody case captioned Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC in favor of Jack Daniel’s, and against the dog toy manufacturer and serial parodist...more
6/21/2023
/ Dilution ,
First Amendment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Jack Daniels Properties Inc v VIP Products LLC ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Parody ,
Rogers Test ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
On March 22, 2023, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in the trademark parody case captioned Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC. As we previously blogged, the issues presented in the care are:
...more
3/28/2023
/ Beverage Manufacturers ,
Brand ,
Dilution ,
First Amendment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Oral Argument ,
Retail Market ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Wine & Alcohol
On November 21, 2022, the Supreme Court granted certiorari on the following questions described in Jack Daniel’s petition:
Respondent VIP Products LLC markets and sells dog toys that trade on the brand recognition of...more
1/20/2023
/ Beverage Manufacturers ,
Certiorari ,
Dilution ,
First Amendment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Retail Market ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Wine & Alcohol
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
On June 24, 2019, the United States Supreme Court, in Iancu v. Brunetti, reviewing the trademark application for “FUCT”, held that the Lanham’s Act’s provision, prohibiting the registration of “immoral[] or scandalous”...more
7/1/2019
/ 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
This blog has followed the evolving judicial views concerning disparaging trademarks, culminating in the Supreme Court’s decision in in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (June 19, 2017)....more
1/8/2019
/ Disparagement ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The Ninth Circuit extended the First Amendment protections enunciated by the Supreme Court in Matal v. Tam, 137 S.Ct. 1744 (2017) to advertising in American Freedom Defense Initiative, et al. v. King County (9th Cir. Sept....more
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently extended First Amendment protections for trademark applications in In re Brunetti, No. 15-1109 (Fed. Cir. December 15, 2017), ruling that Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act’s...more
12/28/2017
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
In a unanimous (albeit fractured) decision written by Justice Alito, the United States Supreme struck down a provision of the Lanham (Trademark) Act barring registration of “disparaging” trademarks, handing a victory to...more
6/21/2017
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Music Industry ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
Team Mascots ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The Supreme Court rejected the effort by the Washington Redskins to skip the 4th Circuit and Join the hearing of the USPTO appeal of the SLANTS case....more
10/5/2016
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Music ,
Music Industry ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
Sports ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The Supreme Court granted the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s petition for certiorari in In re Tam, 117 USPQ2d 1101 (Fed. Cir. 2016). In that case, the USPTO denied registration of an application to register the...more
10/3/2016
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Music ,
Music Industry ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
On April 20, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Federal Circuit seeking Supreme Court review of that Court’s decision in In re Tam, 117 USPQ2d 1001...more
4/25/2016
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Strict Scrutiny Standard ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
Unconstitutional Condition ,
USPTO
In a landmark First Amendment decision relating to the Lanham (Trademark) Act, the Federal Circuit, en banc, struck down § 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), the statutory provision barring registration of...more
In a landmark First Amendment decision relating to the Lanham (Trademark) Act, the Federal Circuit, en banc, struck down § 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), the statutory provision barring registration of...more
The Fourth Circuit recently ruled that a Defendant’s online article entitled “NAACP: National Association for the Abortion of Colored People” did not violate the trademark rights of the NAACP, the National Association for the...more
In Garcia v. Google, No. 12-57302 (9th Cir. May 18, 2015), the en banc Ninth Circuit reversed a prior panel decision and held that an actress was not entitled to a preliminary injunction removing all copies of a film from...more