Unauthorized use of a trademark on the Internet occurs often and in many forms, usually involving the profiting, whether intentionally or unintentionally, from the goodwill associated with a trademark belonging to someone...more
As we reported in our July 7, 2020 blog post on the USPTO v. Booking.com B.V decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a proposed mark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like...more
10/29/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Generic Marks ,
Goods or Services ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Act ,
Trademark Examination Guide ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
In a landmark decision, United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., the Supreme Court of the United States, by an 8-1 vote, affirmed the lower court’s determination that Booking.com could register...more
7/7/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
In a recent decision from the Second Circuit, Judges Parker, Chin, and Carney side-stepped a novel question: whether human skin can be the kind of "tangible medium of expression" required for copyright protection. Instead,...more
6/23/2020
/ Artistic Works ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Registration ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
Dismissals ,
Misappropriation ,
Preemption ,
Section 102 ,
State Law Claims ,
Tattoos ,
The Copyright Act ,
Unfair Competition ,
Unjust Enrichment
In a recent decision from the Southern District of New York, Judge George B. Daniels held that the strong First Amendment interests in protecting free artistic expression warranted summary judgment that Activision Blizzard’s...more
In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court held that a trademark owner need not prove willful infringement in order to seek lost profits from a trademark infringer. The case, Romag Fasteners Inc. v. Fossil Inc. et al.,...more
4/24/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
The Federal Circuit recently held in a precedential ruling that a “color mark” comprising a multiple-color pattern is capable of being inherently distinctive and of registration on the Principal Register, so long as it...more
Trademark due diligence is the process of analyzing information concerning a company's trademark portfolio and assessing the risks, exposures, and benefits associated with a proposed transaction. In an acquisition, both the...more
Trademark rights in the US are based on use of a mark not on registration. Failure to use your mark on a product or to offer a service to the public can result in an abandonment of your trademark rights and an inability to...more
In a recent precedential decision, the TTAB held that the addition of one initial —or possibly even more than one initial—in front of a surname does not necessarily create the impression of a personal name. Rather, the Board...more
The Second Circuit recently affirmed that a developer’s whitewashing of street art painted at the “5Pointz” warehouse complex in Long Island City was a violation of the Visual Artists Rights Act (“VARA,” codified at 17 U.S.C....more
Since 1949, a green jacket has been awarded to the winner of the Masters Tournament, one of golf’s four major championships. Although Augusta National, Inc. had successfully registered the word mark GREEN JACKET as a...more
On Tuesday, October 22, 2019, the US House of Representative approved, by 410-to-6, the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act of 2019, introduced under H.R.2426 by Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)....more
As any football fan knows, Carrie Underwood has performed the introductory song for Sunday Night Football since 2013. “Waitin’ All Day For Sunday Night” was the introductory song for the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and “Oh Sunday...more
This past May, in a highly-anticipated decision, the Supreme Court held in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC that a debtor’s rejection of an executory contract under Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code has the...more
7/8/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Chapter 11 ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a split decision, held that the federal ban on registering “scandalous” and “immoral” trademarks is an unconstitutional violation of free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The...more
6/27/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Legalizing “hemp” under the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) has triggered an important change for the examination of federal trademark applications concerning cannabis and cannabis-derived goods and...more
6/12/2019
/ Agribusiness ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Farm Bill ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
Goods or Services ,
Hemp ,
Marijuana ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marijuana-Infused Edibles ,
New Regulations ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Examination ,
Trademark Examination Guide ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
The constitutionality of yet another portion of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act will soon be determined. Following in the footsteps of the blockbuster decision in Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017) (“Tam”), the U.S. Supreme...more
3/15/2019
/ Appeals ,
Certiorari ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Vulgar or Offensive Marks
The U.S. Supreme Court held today that bringing a suit for copyright infringement requires that the infringed work actually be registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, and that a mere application for registration will not...more
3/7/2019
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Exhaustion ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Registration ,
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniformity
Well, it’s official: Naruto, the crested macaque monkey who took photographs of himself while on a reserve on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia in 2011, lacks statutory standing under the US Copyright Act to sue for copyright...more
Two incredible things happened in 1992 for the NFL football team Washington Redskins. It won the Super Bowl and applied to register a trademark Washington Redskins. It has not been so lucky ever since. It has not won another...more
1/30/2018
/ Commercial Speech ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
On May 18, 2017, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a copyright infringement complaint and added further to a circuit split on when copyright “registration” occurs for purpose of filing a copyright infringement...more
Selecting and protecting your “brand” should begin from the very moment a business is in the process of being formed, whether that business is a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or...more
In a unanimous decision handed down on June 19th, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a long-standing prohibition against federal registration of “disparaging” trademarks, finding that the this provision of...more
6/21/2017
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Music Industry ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
In a decision that may have broader implications in the U.S. fashion industry, the U.S. Supreme Court in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc. (No. 15-866) ruled that the decorative elements on a cheerleading uniform...more
3/29/2017
/ Cheerleaders ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
Graphic Designs ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 101 ,
Separability ,
Sports Apparel ,
Star Athletica v Varsity Brands ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniforms ,
Utilitarian Function