It may come as some surprise that embedded within the over 5,500-pages of the recent COVID-19 relief and government funding bill (the Consolidated Appropriations Act) are several (not-insubstantial) changes to copyright and...more
1/11/2021
/ CASE Act ,
Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ,
Copyright ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
DMCA ,
Ex Partes Reexamination ,
Expungement ,
Federal Funding ,
Lanham Act ,
Relief Measures ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The Supreme Court finds that a “generic.com” mark can be a protectable trademark if there is evidence that consumers recognize it as a source indicator, i.e., the mark has achieved secondary meaning in association with the...more
7/7/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
Is a plaintiff in a trademark infringement suit required to show that a defendant willfully infringed the plaintiff’s trademark as a precondition to an award of defendant’s profits?
This is an important, age-old, yes-or-no...more
4/30/2020
/ § 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
On Monday, the Supreme Court held that the ban on “immoral or scandalous” trademarks was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Court found that, as with the recently struck down ban on “disparaging” marks, the ban...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 ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination