Every month, Erise’s trademark attorneys review the latest developments at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in the courts, and across the corporate world to bring you the stories that you should know about: Fourth...more
Children are all too familiar with parents telling them that everything they own is actually mom and dads. And as frustrating as this is to hear as a child, a recent opinion from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s...more
Welcome to the April 2024 issue of Sterne Kessler’s MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss why it’s important for businesses to think critically about who they are listing as their trademark owners, how the TTAB...more
For years, Sports Illustrated (SI) has provided exclusive, in-depth looks into some of sports’ greatest games and players, with its voice and visuals providing great entertainment and information for sports fans around the...more
As we previously reported, in January of this year, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) published its Draft 5th Amendment to the Chinese Trademark Law. See here. One of the proposed amendments no...more
Trademarks help brand owners build and communicate their brand’s reputation and value with the relevant public. Once that valuable goodwill is linked between a mark and the owner’s products and services, trademark owners can...more
Thank you for reading the August 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we conclude our series that explores ways to lose trademark rights with an examination of naked licensing, discuss a...more
On July 18, 2023, the phrase “Taco Tuesday” was returned to the public after Taco John’s submitted a notice of abandonment for its TACO TUESDAY trademark registration before the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s...more
There are plenty of fish in the sea when it comes to trademarks: from word marks to service marks; from symbols to surnames; from product packaging to product design. When the time is right, and you feel like you have found...more
Thank you for reading the June 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we begin a three-part series that closely examines ways to lose trademark rights; share an article that examines the...more
As highlighted by a recent Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB) decision, Clementvision, Inc. v. Robert Clement, expressly including intellectual property rights in an estate plan can prevent complicated issues from arising....more
In the recent case of The European Union vs. Union of India and Ors., W.P.(C)-IPD 5/2022 and W.P.(C)-IPD 6/2022, the Petitioner (European Union) filed two writ petitions against two orders passed by the Controller General of...more
In theory, trademarks can last “forever.” Unlike copyrights and patents, which have finite durations defined by law, a trademark can last as long as its owner maintains it and continues to use it. As the US Patent and...more
TIGER LILY VENTURES LTD. v. BARCLAYS CAPITAL INC. Before Lourie, Bryson, and Prost. Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Summary: A trademark associated with a...more
Many people believe that trademark rights can be “abandoned” or lost if the trademark owner fails to object to infringing uses of the mark, but that is not entirely accurate....more
The last year has seen urgent discussions concerning racism, discrimination, police violence, inequality, and social justice come to the forefront of life in the United States. Corporate America – and its brands – responded...more
On September 30, 2020, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled in favor of the assignee of the famous LEHMAN BROTHERS trademark against the registration that mark as a brand name for beer, spirits, and bar and restaurant...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 the past few years, retrogaming – collecting and playing video games from past generation consoles – has become incredibly popular. However, retrogaming raises some interesting copyright issues for both IP owners and...more
As set forth in this March 2, 2020 Federal Register Notice and effective immediately, the USPTO is going to start inquiring into petitions to revive an abandoned application, accept a delayed maintenance fee payment, or...more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) recently held that AT&T Mobility, LLC (“AT&T”) had sufficient interest in its almost completely moribund CINGULAR name to oppose two pending trademark applications filed by...more
In a recent decision on remand from the Federal Circuit, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) rejected Petitioner adidas AG’s (“adidas”) claim that Respondent Christian Faith Fellowship Church (“CFFC”) abandoned its...more
In 2005, Christian Faith Fellowship Church, a Chicago-based church group, filed two trademark applications for the mark ADD A ZERO for use on clothing, including shirts and caps that they later sold to raise money for...more
An ongoing issue for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been the number of trademark registrations where registrants do not actually use or intend to use their marks on all of the goods and services...more
On appeal from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or Board), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Board’s decision on the issue of likelihood of confusion with regard to two parties’ paw...more