Trademarks, Popular, Likelihood of Confusion

F1 Team Sues Former Principal Over Personal Photographs Displaying Team Trademarks in Memoir

Miller Canfield on 5/10/2024

Earlier this year, the Haas F1 Team announced it would compete in the 2024 Formula One Championship without the leadership of its former principal Guenther Steiner. Following this separation, Steiner sued his former team for...more

To Parody or Not to Parody: The Supreme Court Weighs In

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 6/13/2023

Close on the heels of the unanimous decision in Amgen v. Sanofi, the Supreme Court handed down another unanimous decision in Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products. Justice Kagan wrote the opinion, with Justice Sotomayor and Justice...more

Intellectual Property Law: Looking Forward to 2023

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP on 12/16/2022

With the continuing advancements of cutting-edge technologies — such as genome editing (CRISPR) and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) — U.S. courts will have a full docket of challenging IP cases throughout 2023. Below are some of...more

TTAB Mi-STEAK-enly Evaluated Evidence in Determining No Likelihood of Confusion

McDermott Will & Emery on 1/9/2019

Addressing the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB’s) treatment of certain evidence in its likelihood of confusion analysis, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the TTAB’s dismissal of...more

Loves me not: Wholesale Jewelry, Inc. Hit with Infringement of Cartier Trademarks and LOVE Collection Trade Dress

Knobbe Martens on 9/5/2018

On July 18, 2018 the well-known luxury goods company, Cartier International AG and Cartier, a division of Richemont North America Inc. (collectively, “Cartier” or “Plaintiffs”) filed suit in the United States District Court...more

Ninth Circuit Confirms Willfulness is Required to Award Profits in Trademark Cases

Fenwick & West LLP on 7/18/2017

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed its commitment to the rule that willfulness is a prerequisite for disgorgement of a trademark infringer’s profits in Stone Creek v. Omnia Italian Design, Case No....more

10 Trademark Cases About Yo Mama

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark on 5/9/2017

Anna Jarvis led the efforts to establish the first official celebration of Mother’s Day in 1908, during which she honored her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis, a Civil War-era social activist. But about a dozen years after...more

2017 Intellectual Property Law Year In Review

McDermott Will & Emery on 2/1/2017

Though politics ruled the headlines in 2016, the year still brought big changes in intellectual property law and its application, most notably in patent subject matter eligibility, inter partes review institution and appeal...more

Can Internet Comments and Search Results Prove Trademark Infringement?

Fenwick & West LLP on 11/22/2016

You’ve selected a unique trademark, marketed and sold products under the brand, and continue to build up a base of satisfied customers. But then a new company emerges with a very similar trademark, piggybacking on your...more

More Than Zero: Under the Lanham Act, One Interstate Sale Qualifies as Actual Use of a Trademark in Commerce

Knobbe Martens on 11/21/2016

In 2009, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected shoe manufacturer Adidas’s application to trademark the phrase “ADIZERO,” due to a likelihood of confusion with an existing mark: “ADD A ZERO,” a clothing trademark held...more

Miss Trademark USA: Beauty Pageant Naming Disputes

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark on 8/10/2016

Just this month, two disputes over the trademark rights to beauty pageant names were resolved, pending appeal. In World Pageants LLC v. Miss G-String International LLC, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) dismissed...more

The Pleads Of The Many: 50 Years of Star Trek Lawsuits

Foley Hoag LLP - Making Your Mark on 7/19/2016

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of the original series of Star Trek, which first aired on NBC in September 1966. On July 22, this milestone will be marked in earnest when Paramount Pictures releases...more

Superman, Superdad, and the Limits of a Trademark Parody Defense

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on 1/7/2016

Superman has triumphed yet again, this time with help from the federal court in the Central District of California. It wasn’t actually Superman that scored this particular victory, but DC Comics, owner of the trademark rights...more

Issues to Be Aware of When Seeking Trademark Protection

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 12/4/2015

Trademarks are valuable tools for businesses since they allow a trademark holder to identify and distinguish its goods from those manufactured or sold by others. However, there are many issues to be aware of when seeking...more

Amazon Wins Ruling on Results for Searches on Brands It Doesn’t Sell

Foley & Lardner LLP on 10/26/2015

On October 21, 2015, the Ninth Circuit ruled that online retailer Amazon does not violate the Lanham Act when, in response to a search for a brand it doesn’t sell, it returns a results page that fails to disclose that fact...more

EU General Court rules on likelihood of confusion between trade marks that use foreign script

Dechert LLP on 9/9/2015

The European General Court's decision in Loutfi Management Propriété Intellectuelle SARL v AMJ Meatproducts (Case C-147/14) concerned the use of non-Latin script in Community trade marks (“CTMs”). The General Court held that...more

Trademark Practitioners Beware: Issue Preclusion May Now Apply to TTAB Findings More Often Than You Think

Proskauer Rose LLP on 9/4/2015

Trademark owners and practitioners who took heart in the Supreme Court's seemingly confined holding that issue preclusion can but does not necessarily apply to likelihood of confusion determinations by the Trademark Trial and...more

Use of Competitors’ Trademarks as Google AdWords is not Infringement

Bennett Jones LLP on 8/27/2015

The British Columbia Supreme Court has decided that the use of a competitor’s trademarks in Google AdWords does not constitute infringement. In Vancouver Community College v Vancouver Career College (Burnaby) Inc.,...more

In Trademark Dispute, New Hampshire School Website Address Not Taken For Granite

Proskauer - New England IP Blog on 8/20/2015

New Hampshire is commonly referred to as the Granite State. In one recent trademark infringement case, however, a federal court in New Hampshire did not find a likelihood of consumer confusion between website addresses for...more

Trademarks in the Crosshairs: Non-Trademark Use of a Descriptive Term - Sorensen v. WD-40 Co.

McDermott Will & Emery on 8/10/2015

Addressing likelihood of confusion and the fair use defense in a trademark infringement suit pertaining to corrosion inhibitors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment...more

Air Jordan Grounded in China

Weintraub Tobin on 8/3/2015

Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. Beyond his five MVP trophies and six NBA championship rings, however Jordan also was the one of the most widely marketed athletic...more

Supreme Court Holds that TTAB Decisions May Have Preclusive Effect, Raising Stakes for Trademark Agency Proceedings

WilmerHale on 4/21/2015

On March 24, the US Supreme Court issued a decision that is likely to raise the stakes of proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). In B&B Hardware, Inc.v. Hargis Industries, Inc., No. 13-352 (March 24,...more

Supreme Court’s B&B Hardware ruling creates the potential for court deference to the TTAB — but will it happen?

Did TTAB proceedings — until now considered a relatively obscure branch of IP litigation, conducted before an administrative body of which most attorneys are blissfully unaware — just assume greater importance? That seems...more

U.S. Supreme Court Addresses Preclusive Effect of Likelihood of Confusion Rulings by Trademark Trial and Appeal Board

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 3/31/2015

Adverse findings in trademark registration opposition and cancellation proceedings in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) may come back to bite the parties to these relatively inexpensive administrative...more

Litigation Alert: U.S. Supreme Court Raises the Stakes in Trademark Proceedings at the TTAB

Fenwick & West LLP on 3/31/2015

This week, the Supreme Court issued an important ruling that will significantly impact the way parties handle trademark disputes in the United States. The opinion in B&B Hardware, Inv. v. Hargis Industries, Inc., 575 U.S....more

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