Addressing for the first time whether attorneys’ fees should be included in an award of costs under Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(d), the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to include such...more
Addressing for the first time the issue of whether the US Copyright Act governs a performance that originated abroad but is accessible by viewers in the United States, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held...more
Addressing whether to exercise personal jurisdiction over defendants whose only tie to the forum was an allegedly infringing newsletter sent to 10 California residents, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the...more
Addressing unresolved issues surrounding damages calculations for misappropriation of trade secrets under New York law, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit certified two questions to the New York Court of Appeals:...more
Addressing the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) finding that EARNHARDT was not primarily merely a surname, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded the case to the TTAB to clarify its surname analysis....more
Addressing a dispute over ownership of a service mark between a departing member of a group and the remaining group members, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s...more
Addressing the regional circuit split over whether copyright registration occurs when a copyright application is filed or when the Register of Copyrights registers the copyright, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit...more
Addressing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) grandfather clause that allows “pre-existing subscription services” to pay the pre-1998 reduced royalty rate for digital music licensing, the US Court of Appeals for the...more
Expressly adopting for the first time a test to determine whether a manufacturer or distributor is the owner of an unregistered trademark in the absence of a contractual ownership clause, the US Court of Appeals for the Third...more
Addressing the standard for violating the Lanham Act’s false advertising provisions, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment for the defendant, finding that the...more
In Depth -
In efforts to enhance the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) electronic filing system and to “assess and promote the accuracy and integrity of the trademark register,” the USPTO has ushered in changes that...more
Addressing a circuit split over a trademark licensee’s rights following a debtor/licensor’s bankruptcy, the US Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) for the First Circuit held that, although trademarks and trade names are not...more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) explained that an applicant’s evidence of a family of marks can be used to help prove acquired distinctiveness for a new member of that family, but held that the applicant failed to...more
Addressing the validity of, and likelihood of confusion between, two data-driven analytic software companies’ “Collective”-formative trademarks, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit disagreed with the district...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit determined that a Broadway play’s verbatim use of William “Bud” Abbott and Lou Costello’s “Who’s on First?” comedy routine was not a transformative fair use, but nonetheless...more