JONES DAY TALKS®: Women in IP: 2020 in Review and a Look Toward 2021
2020 was a busy year for trademark litigation, with three U.S. Supreme Court decisions and several high-profile lower court cases involving trademark law. But many folks are understandably eager to put 2020 in the rearview...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
2020 was a tumultuous year. And while you were busy shifting to online meetings, implementing new measures to keep employees and customers safe, and otherwise adapting to the challenges created by the coronavirus, the U.S....more
At the recent INTA 2020 Annual Meeting, Kilpatrick Townsend’s Ted Davis delivered an analysis of major decisions rendered by the U.S. courts and the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) over the past 12 months. Key...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 US Patent and Trademark Office issued Examination Guide 3-20 on Oct. 28 to clarify procedures that trademark examiners should follow in view of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2020 ruling. As we discussed in a previous...more
USPTO News - ..USPTO releases report on artificial intelligence and intellectual property policy. ..Mary Critharis has been appointed the USPTO’s Acting Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs. Ms....more
In June of this year, the US Supreme Court ruled that a proposed mark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like “.com,” is not per se generic. (USPTO v. Booking.com). In response,...more
As we reported in our July 7, 2020 blog post on the USPTO v. Booking.com B.V decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a proposed mark consisting of the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain, like...more
In U.S. Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V., the Supreme Court held, in an 8-1 decision, that a generic word combined with the top-level domain “.com” can be a federally protectable trademark if it has secondary...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
In the second quarter of 2020, the Supreme Court decided five intellectual property focused cases in which it resolved a longstanding circuit split in Romag Fasteners and opened the door to the trademark registration of...more
As followers of this blog may recall, in December 2019, the Supreme Court resolved a circuit split as to whether the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) may recover its “attorneys’ fees” (effectively, the pro...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
Supreme Court Decision in Booking.com Case - Booking.com, owner of the popular travel booking website, previously applied to register four trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in connection with its...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Booking.com B.V., the owner of the hotel-reservation website of the same name, is entitled to register the mark BOOKING.COM with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”)....more