Does the Lanham Act’s restriction on registration of trademarks that include an individual’s name without the consent of such individual violate the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment, even when the mark expresses...more
6/17/2024
/ First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Vidal v Elster
On July 18, 2023, the phrase “Taco Tuesday” was returned to the public after Taco John’s submitted a notice of abandonment for its TACO TUESDAY trademark registration before the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s...more
Can an alleged trademark infringer avoid the likelihood-of-confusion test by claiming its use is an “expressive work”? In Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, 599 U.S. __ (2023), the Supreme Court recently...more
How far does a trademark extend into the digital art world? French luxury fashion brand Hermès sought to answer this question in its precedent-setting case against artist Mason Rothschild, which concluded with a win for...more
2/10/2023
/ Artists ,
Blockchain ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cybersquatting ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Metaverse ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Popular ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks
The Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced its final rules for implementing the TMA, the majority of which will...more
United States trademark law makes a strong distinction between “descriptive” and “generic” terms. The former are potentially accorded substantial benefits, while the latter can never be entitled to protection and are not...more
5/4/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Booking.com ,
Corporate Branding ,
Descriptive Trademarks ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
gTLD ,
Oral Argument ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just issued new rules that directly affect trademark owners. Going forward, trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to a proceeding before the Trademark Trial and...more