Two recent decisions from the Western District of North Carolina in Winestore Holdings LLC v. Justin Vineyards & Winery LLC provide a tasting of the requirements for bringing a declaratory judgment action for non-infringement...more
It’s been an annual tradition here at The TMCA to write about a trademark and copyright dispute between Louis Vuitton Malletier, S.A. and My Other Bag, Inc. (“MOB”) over a line of canvas tote bags that parodied Louis...more
3/26/2019
/ Attorney's Fees ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Dilution ,
Fashion Branding ,
Lanham Act ,
Louis Vuitton ,
Octane Fitness v. ICON ,
Parody ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trademark Bullying ,
Trademark Infringement
A recent Second Circuit decision in a case involving two companies using the ROGUE mark for apparel sets the record straight on what it means to have common law priority of rights in a mark for a category of goods in...more
Well-known perfume marketer Coty Inc. had a big win in New York federal district court, obtaining injunctive relief and $6.5 million dollars in an accounting of profits from copycat perfume seller Excell Brands, LLC. In an...more
9/29/2017
/ Advertising ,
Brand ,
Dilution ,
Fair Use ,
False Advertising ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Nominative Fair Use Doctrine ,
Trade Dress ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
When two different companies adopt confusingly similar trademarks and use them in different parts of the United States, complications ensue. The adjudication of the respective rights of the parties will depend on the...more
Last January, we blogged about a district court decision involving trademark parody in Louis Vuitton Malletier, S.A. v. My Other Bag, Inc. In that decision, the court held that defendant My Other Bag had convincingly argued...more
A recent decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit highlights the perils of delay in filing a motion for a preliminary injunction in a trademark infringement case. In Wreal, LLC v. Amazon.com, Inc....more
More than half a century ago, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued an influential decision in Dawn Donut Co. v. Hart’s Food Stores, Inc., concerning the proper scope of injunctive relief in a trademark...more
We blogged last week about a recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, Inc. v. Security University, LLC, in which the Court...more
If a defendant in a trademark case uses the plaintiff’s trademark, not to identify the defendant’s own products, but rather to refer accurately to the plaintiff’s products, is that trademark infringement? Called “nominative...more
In a recent post, we provided guidance on how an advertiser might execute a Super Bowl-related promotion even if it is not an authorized game sponsor. First, avoid mentioning the trademarked name of the event — instead,...more
A recent district court decision granting a preliminary injunction in The Brooklyn Brewery Corp. v. Black Ops Brewing, Inc. demonstrates the advantage of owning a federal trademark registration when products bearing the...more
In a recent post, we discussed the trademark parody defense in the context of a California district court decision holding that the owner of the Superman “S” logo had adequately stated infringement claims asserted against a...more
Superman has triumphed yet again, this time with help from the federal court in the Central District of California. It wasn’t actually Superman that scored this particular victory, but DC Comics, owner of the trademark rights...more