A recent lawsuit against actor and comedian Marlon Wayans underscores the practical value created by securing a copyright registration early and the associated risk doing so creates for a third-party user....more
In a precedential decision issued June 6, 2025, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) confirmed what has long been suggested in its procedural manual: Appellants in ex parte appeals may not incorporate arguments from...more
After a two-year experiment under the MAX trademark, Warner Bros. Discovery is restoring HBO MAX as the brand for its flagship streaming platform. With so many name changes in recent years, it might seem like branding...more
A political shake-up at the U.S. Copyright Office has triggered operational chaos and legal uncertainty, leaving creators and copyright lawyers questioning the validity of recent registrations. Following the Trump...more
6/5/2025
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Office ,
Copyright Registration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Popular ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Trump Administration
In another in a long line of trademark imitation cases, Kellogg North America Co. LLC has filed a trademark and trade dress infringement lawsuit against a small Ohio-based food truck named L’eggo My Eggroll, arguing that the...more
As noted in the linked article, many iconic brands, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, and JC Penney (yes, he was real), bear the surnames of their founders. These names often lend a sense of authenticity or legacy that...more
With changing laws and the ubiquity of cannabis and vaping product and service providers, leveraging the familiarity of established trademarks has become a common, albeit risky, marketing tactic. New brands often mimic...more
In filing to register a trademark on an “intent-to-use” basis, the applicant must verify that it has a good faith “bona fide intention to use the mark in commerce.” 15 U.S.C. § 1051(b). Assuming there is nothing on the face...more
A day before the firing of the head of the U.S. Copyright Office, the third installment of the office's series of reports on copyright issues and AI was released. The 113-page document covers a lot of ground, not the least of...more
It is a basic tenet of trademark law that rights are jurisdictional. Trademark owners only have rights in the mark in the jurisdictions in which they have registered (or, in some cases, used) the mark....more
5/13/2025
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Foreign Trademark ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
International Trade ,
Jurisdiction ,
Trademark Cancellation ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks
When a third party purchases a manufacturer's goods intended for distribution outside of the U.S., and then imports those goods into and sells them to consumers in the U.S., the products are authentic, and so trademark...more
In rejecting an AI company's fair use defense for using Thomson Reuters' Westlaw headnotes to train its competing legal tool, Judge Bilas, the District of Delaware judge in Thomson Reuters Enterprise Centre GMBH and West...more
In a long-anticipated report from the U.S. Copyright Office providing guidance on the copyrightability of works created by and/or with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence, the Office reaffirmed its previous guidance...more
For wineries, managing intellectual property (IP) is crucial to maintaining brand identity and protecting creative investments. While general IP principles apply across many sectors, wineries face unique challenges and...more
1/14/2025
/ Confidentiality Agreements ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Employee Training ,
Enforcement ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Patent Applications ,
Patents ,
Trade Dress ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
As a general rule, in order to be protectable trade dress, a feature of a product, for example, the product's color, must be nonfunctional. That is, the feature must have been an arbitrary choice added to identify the source...more
The wine industry, with its rich history and vibrant marketplace, relies heavily on branding and innovation. Protecting your brand and other intellectual property (IP) is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge and...more
10/7/2024
/ Best Practices ,
Business Assets ,
Data Collection ,
Data Management ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Events ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Personal Information ,
State Privacy Laws ,
Wine & Alcohol ,
Wineries
In the hearing on the appeal of the U.S. Copyright Office's refusal to register his AI-created artwork ("A Return to Paradise," a copy of which appears above) and the district court's affirming of the refusal, programmer...more
When seeing similar trademarks or trade dress employed by a third party, companies often immediately react with a demand letter requiring the target to “immediately cease and desist” its use of the IP and threatening...more
Coming out of their recent rulemaking meeting, the California Privacy Protection Agency is not surprisingly finding the question of how to regulate the use of ADMT to be a difficult one. While pointing to consumer interest...more
Trademark owners have the right to stop third parties from using marks that could cause a likelihood of consumer confusion. Third-party use of a trademark that is the same or similar to the owner's trademark for goods related...more
6/10/2024
/ Appeals ,
Certification Marks ,
Goods or Services ,
Inherently Distinctive ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Third-Party ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Ownership ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks
After being sued for trademark infringement, Oakland has hit back at San Francisco with a countersuit for declaratory relief. The declaratory relief decision will similarly answer the question of whether Oakland's use of the...more
Attorneys General from fourteen states—California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont—and the District of Columbia urged...more
As law firms and other businesses increasingly look to AI-driven software to drive efficiency, the importance of meticulous review of not just their capabilities and features, but also the agreements under which they are...more
It might not have been successful, but query why Trump didn't argue Section 230 shields him from liability for reposts under Section 230?
It is settled law that Section 230, which is often thought to only shield...more
Even with the A's leaving the Bay Area, we're getting an extra SF-Oakland matchup. This trademark infringement case will have some interesting issues to be decided (if it gets that far)...more