In Jack Daniels Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, (slip. op. No. 22-148, June 8, 2023), the United States Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, ruling that a “Bad Spaniels” dog toy designed to look like a Jack Daniels...more
6/12/2023
/ Cease and Desist ,
Dilution ,
First Amendment ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Jack Daniels Properties Inc v VIP Products LLC ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Parody ,
Rogers Test ,
SCOTUS ,
Trade Dress ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now at our fingertips. No longer a concept hidden behind the walls of Big Tech and academia, AI programs are now available and accessible to everyone. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have...more
As the rate of international cyberattacks increases, it is essential that corporations that collect and store their customers’ personal data keep it safe from breaches. But even large corporations can be slow to act in order...more
Speed and efficiency have long been Amazon’s hallmarks, and its dispute resolution system for patent infringement claims is no exception. Amazon’s Utility Patent Neutral Evaluation (“UPNE”) proceeding is quickly emerging as...more
Is an unused registered trademark preventing you from clearing or registering your mark? Or was the blocking registration filed for goods or services that were not in use when the registrant declared that they were? As we...more
Quentin Tarantino recently announced plans to auction off seven scenes from the 1994 motion picture Pulp Fiction as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. These “Tarantino NFTs” will include a collection of high-resolution digital...more
As previewed in Mintz’s earlier post, New York City’s Biometric Identifier Information Law (the “NYC Law”) is now in force, effective Friday, July 9th. The NYC Law requires that places of entertainment, retail stores and...more
2021 could be another record year for new and pending privacy legislation, including laws either banning outright or placing limits on the use of technology involving biometric information. Just this year, Portland, Oregon...more
After five years of litigation, the battle between Unicolors, a California-based fabric design company, and H&M is still going strong. Now the United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether an inaccuracy in...more
On April 5, 2021, the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision that could have profound implications in the software industry. It held 6-2 that Google’s copying of 11,500 lines of code from Oracle’s Java SE API in...more
4/7/2021
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Fair Use ,
Google ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Java ,
Oracle ,
Oracle v Google ,
Software Developers ,
The Copyright Act ,
Transformative Use
On December 27, 2020, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“the Act”) became law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Among other changes, the Act includes important amendments to the Lanham Act...more
1/13/2021
/ Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Ex Partes Reexamination ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Lanham Act ,
Trademark Cancellation ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks
The Supreme Court unanimously held this week that Lucky Brand was not precluded from mounting a new defense in its litigation with Marcel Fashions Group — despite having chosen not to bring up the same defense in a prior...more
5/15/2020
/ Claim Preclusion ,
Collateral Estoppel ,
Counterclaims ,
Defense Preclusion ,
Fashion Branding ,
Issue Preclusion ,
Lucky Brand Dungarees v Marcel Fashion Group ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Release Agreements ,
Res Judicata ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Subsequent Litigation ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
On April 27, 2020, the Supreme Court held that annotations to legislative text, even if created by a private contracted party, are not copyrightable materials under 17 U.S.C. §101. Invoking the government edicts doctrine, the...more
4/29/2020
/ Annotated Case Law ,
Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc ,
Government Edicts Doctrine ,
Legislative Duties ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Code ,
The Copyright Act
In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court held that a trademark owner need not prove willful infringement in order to seek lost profits from a trademark infringer. The case, Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc. et al.,...more
4/24/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
This year the Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Circuit Courts penned a number of opinions impacting trademark law. Here are some key takeaways from the past year...more
Relatives of the late conservative political activist, Phyllis Schlafly, lost their appeal to prevent the Saint Louis Brewery, LLC (“the Brewery”) from trademarking the Schlafly name in connection with various beer products...more