On July 31, 2024, a bipartisan group of US senators introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe (NO FAKES) Act of 2024 to protect the voice and visual likeness rights of individuals from...more
In Vidal v. Elster, a unanimous Supreme Court of the United States reversed the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s decision, holding that the Lanham Act’s names clause does not violate the First Amendment or...more
6/21/2024
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Donald Trump ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
Vidal v Elster
Issuing a revised opinion following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit determined that none of the defendant’s purely foreign sales...more
After the district court, on remand, held that laches did not bar relief, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit again determined that the district court abused its discretion by not properly applying the presumption...more
Addressing copyright fair use in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent guidance in Warhol, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit partially reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the...more
4/11/2024
/ Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc v Goldsmith ,
Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Derivative Works ,
Fair Use ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
The Copyright Act ,
Work-For-Hire
As 2023 draws to a close, new developments continue to emerge across the patent, trademark, copyright and trade secret spaces.
Join members of McDermott’s Intellectual Property Group for a year-end review that will explore...more
12/6/2023
/ Artificial Intelligence ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Applications ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Registration ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Fair Use ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) ,
Patent Applications ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patent Registration ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patent-Eligible Subject Matter ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Proposed Rules ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
Unified Patent Court ,
Webinars
The increasing sophistication of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has had widespread effects on fields ranging from art and film to law and healthcare. The implications for copyright law principles, such as authorship,...more
9/15/2023
/ Algorithms ,
Artificial Intelligence ,
Authorship ,
Comment Period ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Office ,
Fair Use ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Machine Learning ,
Public Comment ,
USPTO
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit addressed contributory trademark infringement for the first time, finding that specific knowledge is required for liability to attach. Y.Y.G.M. SA, DBA Brandy Melville v....more
8/3/2023
/ Appeals ,
Counterfeiting ,
Damages ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Online Marketplace ,
Remand ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Blindness
In a decision that may make it more difficult for brand owners to enforce their marks against infringers located outside of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the judgment of the US Court of...more
7/11/2023
/ Abitron Austria GmbH v Hetronic International Inc ,
Damages ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Jurisdictions ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
International Trademark Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Ownership ,
Trademarks
The Supreme Court agreed to review the US Patent & Trademark Office’s (PTO) challenge to a February 2022 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the ruling at issue, the Federal Circuit held that...more
The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s decision, holding that the first factor in the fair use analysis favored photographer Lynn Goldsmith because the “purpose and...more
On the second round of a copyright dispute, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded (again) to the district court to apply the “independent economic value test” handed...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment grant in favor of the opposers of a certification mark application for the trademark GRUYERE to designate cheese that originates in the Gruyère region...more
In 2023, we believe that intellectual property issues in relation to the metaverse, blockchain technologies and crypto assets will continue to be an important focus for brand owners and for businesses entering or expanding...more
In February 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, L.P., that lack of either factual or legal knowledge on the part of a copyright holder can excuse an inaccuracy in the...more
In a precedential opinion, the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) dismissed an opposition filed against an application for registration of a logo mark containing the word “SMOKES,” finding no likelihood of confusion with...more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) denied registration of several US trademark applications for the mark FUCK, even though the applicant had overcome a prohibition on the registration of “immoral or scandalous” trademarks...more
The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) issued a precedential decision affirming the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Examining Attorney’s refusal to register two different logo marks filed by southern California’s...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit analyzed the fair use doctrine of US copyright law in a dispute for recognition of a 2001 French judgment relating to a finding of copyright infringement of certain photographic...more
7/21/2022
/ Appeals ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Diversity ,
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ,
Fine Art ,
France ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Photographs ,
Reversal ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trials
On remand from the Supreme Court of the United States, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed its own 2019 opinion that preliminarily enjoined a professional networking platform from denying a data analytics...more
5/12/2022
/ Appeals ,
Competition ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Data Collection ,
DMCA ,
LinkedIn ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Web Scraping
Ending a hard-fought three-year campaign to secure registration of a popular handbag, the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) Trademark Trial & Appeal Board designated as precedential its decision refusing registration of the...more
Revisiting jurisprudence touching on the Lanham Act and the First Amendment from the Supreme Court’s decisions in Matal v. Tam and Iancu v. Brunetti, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that applying Sec....more
3/10/2022
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Counsel ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks
The Supreme Court of the United States held that lack of factual or legal knowledge can excuse an inaccuracy in a copyright registration under a safe harbor contained in the Copyright Act. As a result, an applicant’s...more
McDermott Partner Sarah Bro takes a look at developments shaping trademark law....more
The US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) continues to uphold its promise to combat fraud and “protect the integrity of the U.S. trademark register” with initiatives to investigate and sanction actions before the PTO that appear...more