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Acquired Distinctiveness United States Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Application

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

What's In a Name?: The Legal Landscape of Choosing Surnames as Trademarks

As noted in the linked article, many iconic brands, including Ford, Harley-Davidson, and JC Penney (yes, he was real), bear the surnames of their founders. These names often lend a sense of authenticity or legacy that...more

McDermott Will & Emery

No Green Light to Register Color Mark for Medical Gloves

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

International Lawyers Network

Can Trademarks Be Too Descriptive for Registration?

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

McDermott Will & Emery

Sole Searching: Trade Dress Hopes Booted as Functional, Nondistinctive

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment grant in a trademark dispute, finding that the district court did not err in concluding that a subset of design elements lacked...more

Erise IP

What’s Trending in Trademarks, February 2024: Fruity Pebbles Denied Color Mark, Captain Cannabis Cancellation, Trader Joe’s vs....

Erise IP on

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: Fruity...more

Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLC

If a Good is not a Good, then a Trademark is not a Trademark

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

McDermott Will & Emery

It’s Not in the Bag: TTAB Refuses to Register Generic Handbag Design

McDermott Will & Emery on

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

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - January 2021

[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

JONES DAY TALKS®: Women in IP: 2020 in Review and a Look Toward 2021

Jones Day on

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

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Landmark Trademark Protection Case Before Supreme Court

United States trademark law makes a strong distinction between “descriptive” and “generic” terms. The former are potentially accorded substantial benefits, while the latter can never be entitled to protection and are not...more

Akerman LLP - Marks, Works & Secrets

The Joint is Just a Music Joint, Not a Trademark

The Federal Circuit in In re JC Hospitality LLC recently affirmed the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s refusal to register the service mark THE JOINT for a venue offering...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - January 2020: That's Not My [Sur]name

In a non-precedential opinion issued this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board affirmed the refusal to register Jos. A. Magnus & Co., LLC’s mark MAGNUS for “whiskey, gin, and...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Booking.com Heads to the High Court

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the USPTO’s writ of certiorari to review traveling website company Booking.com’s trademark application for “booking.com”. The TMCA previously covered developments in this case here....more

Womble Bond Dickinson

Intellectual Property Considerations and Guidance for Start-Ups: Trademarks

Womble Bond Dickinson on

Trademarks protect distinctive marks, such as brand names, logos, and designs. This protection allows a trademark holder to exclude others from using the mark without permission of the owner. The following includes important,...more

Fenwick & West LLP

Intellectual Property Bulletin - Fall 2018

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In This Issue - Gender Diversity in Patenting: Current Landscape and Recommendations - The gender gap in patenting is a current challenge that companies face. While this issue seems pervasive, companies and lawyers can...more

Ward and Smith, P.A.

Wake Up and Smell the . . . PLAY-DOH®?

Ward and Smith, P.A. on

It has been about a year since the toy company, Hasbro, Inc. (“Hasbro”), filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") to register the scent of PLAY-DOH® toy-modeling compound. Although Hasbro only...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Booking it to the District Court

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

A recent decision out of the federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia overturned in part the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decision that the mark “Booking.com” is not registrable on the basis that the...more

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