PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now - Enforcing and Expanding Your Brand During the COVID-19 Pandemic
This article highlights important aspects of Canadian trademark practice and the benefits of owning a Canadian trademark registration. In Canada, applicants do not need to specify any filing bases in their applications and,...more
Beginning in 2026, trademark owners in the United Kingdom and European Union will need to rely on use of their trademark registrations within the relevant jurisdiction in order to meet the use requirements put forth by the...more
Following Brexit, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) automatically converted approximately two million EU trade marks into comparable UK trade marks (“UK trademark clones”) to preserve protection in the...more
In May 2025, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released updated Guidelines on applications for three-year non-use cancellation actions against registered trademarks (Updated Guidelines). A key...more
On April 1, 2025, long-awaited amendments to Canada’s Trademarks Act and Trademarks Regulations will come into force. The purpose of the amendments is to discourage abuse of Canada’s trademarks regime and to improve the...more
Beginning in January 2025, the Canadian Trademarks Office (CIPO) will start proactively and unilaterally (i.e., without a request by a third party) sending notices to registered trademark owners requiring them to prove that...more
If you're looking to safeguard your brand and avoid costly errors in the world of trademarks, this session is a must-attend. Our experienced speakers will guide you through the essential steps to protect your intellectual...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
Kilpatrick partners Crystal Genteman and Wendy Cheng recently presented “Big Little Fires Everywhere: Cross-Jurisdictional Nonuse Actions to Clear Deadwood” at the firm’s annual 2024 Advanced Trademark Law Seminar in New...more
The Federal Circuit partially refuted the long held assumption that the trademark applicant has the burden of proving third party marks were in use when determining the strength of the applicant mark. The panel led by Judge...more
In Spireon, Inc. v. Flex Ltd., No. 2022-1578 (Fed. Cir. June 26, 2023), the Federal Circuit took a surprising turn in which it held that it is the trademark owner’s burden to prove that identical third-party marks put forth...more
CJEU Decision - In Maxxus Group GmbH v Globus Holding GmbH C‑183/21, the CJEU was asked whether German procedural rules were consistent with Article 19 of the Directive (EU) 2015/2436 on revocation of trademark rights for...more
The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) was signed into law on December 27, 2020. The TMA amended the federal trademark law (known as the Lanham Act) to provide new tools to address abuses of the US trademark...more
The Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) came into force December 18, 2021. Key provisions of the TMA enlarge options for cancelling a trademark registration in whole or in part by targeting nonuse of the registered mark for...more
Attention trademark practitioners: the finalized rules implementing the 2020 Trademark Modernization Act (“TMA”) go into effect this weekend, on December 18, 2021. Significantly, this marks the availability of three new...more
Suppose that you want to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods or services for your business. What if you file a federal trademark application and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refuses registration of...more
As we near the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, trademark maintenance deadlines in 2021 create new obstacles for registrants. To maintain a federal trademark registration, registrants must periodically file an...more
Despite the black humor that March 2020 has never actually ended, time does keep marching on and presenting new challenges. As we near the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, trademark maintenance deadlines in 2021 create...more
As we wrote in Part 1 of this series, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“TMA”) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and contained several significant amendments to the Lanham Act. This post will cover three of the...more
Congress passed The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (Act) on December 21, 2020 and the Act was signed into law by President Trump on December 27, 2020. Though titled as COVID relief, the Act includes sweeping changes to...more
Ready for 2021? Make Your (IP) List and Check It Twice - The events of 2020 have posed unique challenges to businesses in the U.S. and globally, testing their ability to adapt to new market conditions, re-evaluate resource...more
On the latest episode of Williams Mullen's Trending Now - An IP Podcast, Ed White is joined by Janet Cho to discuss specific strategies to protect and enhance your brand during the COVID-19 pandemic....more
U.S. Trademark laws are based on the premise that rights in a trademark exist so long as the mark is continuously used in interstate commerce. Once you cease use of the mark without an intention of resuming such use, the mark...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
As others have previously reported, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has taken the position that the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an “extraordinary situation” warranting suspension of certain rules relating to...more