JONES DAY TALKS®: Women in IP: 2020 in Review and a Look Toward 2021
Addressing for the first time the test for determining whether a color mark is generic, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit adopted the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board’s Milwaukee test as the appropriate standard,...more
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Heritage Alliance v. American Policy Roundtable, Case No. 24-1155 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 9, 2025), provides a salient reminder to brand owners seeking to build value in descriptive trademarks...more
Suppose you want to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods/services for your business. What if the trademark describes an ingredient, quality, feature, function, characteristic, or purpose of your...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board’s dismissal of an opposition to the registration of the marks IVOTERS and IVOTERS.COM while also noting that the US Patent &...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s dismissal of a complaint for trade dress infringement and unfair competition, finding that the district court erred in requiring the...more
Join Sterne Kessler’s Global Trademark & Brand Protection team for our mid-year review webinar, when we will take a closer look at the latest developments in trademark law. From recent court decisions to industry-trends, our...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a senior party mark but found that the district court committed clear error in finding that a similar junior party mark was valid. The Fifth Circuit also found that the...more
Thank you for reading the July 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we continue our three-part series that closely examines ways to lose trademark rights with a discussion of genericide. We...more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) adopted a new rule for evaluating whether non-syndicated news columns are “goods in trade” under the Lanham Act in In re The New York Times Company, a precedential opinion issued on...more
In a precedential opinion addressing the most fundamental requirement for trademark protection, the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) affirmed the US Patent & Trademark Office’s (PTO) refusal to register a “#” based mark...more
For the second time, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit examined the standard for demonstrating fraud in a party’s claim of a trademark’s acquired distinctiveness for purposes of registration under Section 2(f)...more
[co-author: Joseph Diorio, Law Clerk] The January 2021 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses: a recent non-precedential TTAB decision on background designs; the Trademark Modernization Act;...more
Jones Day's Meredith Wilkes and Anna Raimer discuss 2020's most significant developments in trademark law and preview what's to come in 2021, including possible progress in Washington on the highly anticipated Trademark...more
Addressing the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling in USPTO v. Booking.com B.V., the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) recently issued guidance on the examining procedures for “generic.com terms.” (Examination Guide...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently confirmed that a “generic.com” term may be eligible for federal trademark registration in the U.S., in certain circumstances. We will review the relevant decisions, discuss the Canadian legal...more
Gambling With Graffiti: Using Street Art on Goods or in Advertising Comes With Significant Risks - Graffiti. Guerrilla Art. Street Art. Aerosol Art. Tagging. It appears on the sides of buildings, highway signs, boundary...more
The decision expands the availability of trademark protection for domain names and limits the number of terms deemed unprotectable because they are generic. Key Points: ..The addition of the .com top-level domain to an...more
Recently the Supreme Court affirmed registration on the principal register for what appeared to be a generic term. In United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V., 140 S. Ct. 2298 (2020), the Court affirmed...more
In U.S. Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., the Supreme Court held that a term that combines a generic word with “.com” is not generic if consumers perceive the term to signify the source of a product and thus...more
On June 30, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the potential registrability in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) of a claimed trademark or service mark consisting of a generic word and a generic top-level domain...more
The basic premise that a generic term is un-registrable is, at first glance, uncontroversial. If a key purpose of a trademark is to identify a particular source of goods or services, then it stands to reason that one cannot...more
On June 30, 2020, The Supreme Court of the United States issued its opinion in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B. V., holding that a mark consisting of a generic term combined with “.com” is not...more
By an 8-1 vote, the Supreme Court rejected a per se rule by the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) that a generic word followed by “.com” is necessarily generic and therefore ineligible for trademark protection. U.S. Patent...more
The June 30th Supreme Court decision in Booking.com held that generic terms coupled with top-level domain names can be eligible for trademark registration. This decision is a win for brand owners as it reinforces how – in the...more
A generic.com term may be eligible for trademark protection if consumers perceive the term as a source identifier. The combination of a generic word plus ".com" does not necessarily equal a generic term. Instead, in an 8–1...more