Kilpatrick partner Ted Davis spoke recently on recent developments in U.S. trademark and unfair competition law during a webinar of the Cincinnati Intellectual Property Law Association.
The following were among the key takeaways from that presentation:
1. The Supreme Court’s confirmation in Dewberry Engineers Inc. v. Dewberry Group, 604 U.S. 321 (2025), that the inherently flexible nature of the equitable remedy of an accounting of profits nevertheless is subject to guardrails;
2. revised findings of fact and conclusions of law on remand in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, 599 U.S. 140 (2023);
3. the continued post-Jack Daniel’s viability of the restrictive test for infringement first articulated in Rogers v. Grimaldi, 875 F.2d 994 (2d Cir. 1989), in cases not presenting trademark uses by defendants;
4. the Federal Circuit’s war on claimed color marks in CeramTec GmbH v. Coorstek Bioceramics LLC, 124 F.4th 1358 (Fed. Cir. 2025), and In re PT Medisafe Techs., 134 F.4th 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2025); and
5. the possible beginning of the end for the Dawn Donut Doctrine in Westmont Living, Inc. v. Retirement Unlimited, Inc., 132 F.4th 288 (4th Cir. 2025).