In a new precedential decision, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Carroll Shelby Licensing, Inc. v. Halicki that “Eleanor,” a stable of Ford Mustangs that appears across four action films, is not a copyrightable...more
The plaintiff AirDoctor sued the defendant under the Lanham Act for advertising and selling filters for use in AirDoctor purifiers. While the defendant advertised its filters as “compatible” and “replacements” for the...more
The Supreme Court on February 26, 2025, overturned a nearly $43 million award granted in a decades long trademark dispute between two real estate companies. The unanimous ruling emphasized that under the Lanham Act section...more
3/4/2025
/ Affiliates ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Misconduct ,
Dewberry Group Inc v Dewberry Engineers Inc ,
Disgorgement ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks
In a closely monitored appeal, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously upheld a $56 million damages award against beverage company Molson Coors in Stone Brewing Co., LLC v. Molson Coors Beverage...more
1/16/2025
/ Advertising ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Popular ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Unfair Competition
The Ninth Circuit has granted a rehearing en banc in Martinez v. ZoomInfo Tech., Inc. concerning the appealability of denial of anti-SLAPP motions under the collateral order doctrine.
Historically, the Ninth Circuit has...more
On October 10, 2023, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed CA Senate Bill 365 (SB 365), set to go into effect in 2024. This bill gives state court judges the discretion to move forward with litigation in trial court while an...more
10/18/2023
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
California ,
Coinbase Inc v Bielski ,
Governor Newsom ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Legislation ,
SCOTUS ,
State and Local Government ,
Stays
On June 23, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court published its highly anticipated ruling in Coinbase v. Bielski, deciding in favor of Coinbase. In a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court held that litigation...more
The United States Supreme Court recently granted a petition for certiorari filed by cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, which asks the Court to resolve a deep circuit split on whether a lawsuit should be automatically stayed...more
Songs often share components that sound similar to one another, which frequently raises the question of whether copyright infringement has occurred. On March 10, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held—in a...more
On February 24, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in In Re: Elster, overturned the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) refusal to grant a trademark registration on the phrase “TRUMP TOO SMALL” for...more
A petition for writ of certiorari pending before the U.S. Supreme Court asks the Court to decide whether a plaintiff must prove willful infringement to obtain an award of a trademark infringer’s profits for a violation of 15...more
5/16/2019
/ Appeals ,
Calculation of Damages ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Damages ,
Fashion Design ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Profits ,
Remand ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Willful Infringement
In a unanimous decision this month, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a copyright claimant cannot sue for infringement until the U.S. Copyright Office has granted or rejected the application to register the copyright. In...more
3/22/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Exhaustion ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Registration ,
Damages ,
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp v Wall-Street.com LLC ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General ,
Split of Authority ,
The Copyright Act ,
Uniformity
For the first time since it began balancing the competing interests of trademark plaintiffs and creators of expressive works, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held this month in Gordon v. Drape Creative that...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded on March 28 that virtual currency used in mobile games can qualify as a “thing of value” for the purpose of state gambling laws — a conclusion that, until now, has...more
In a move that will likely benefit game developers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit explicitly held that First Amendment protection extends to use of third-party trademarks in the commercial promotion of an...more
11/30/2017
/ Appeals ,
Arrangement and Promotion ,
Artistic Works ,
Commercial Use ,
First Amendment ,
Gaming ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Music Industry ,
Summary Judgment ,
Television Shows ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Twentieth Century Fox ,
Video Games
A Smooth Patch in a Rough Road? Governmental Transition and Intellectual Property -
Whenever a new Congress convenes, some IP issues come to the fore while others take a back seat. Transition to a new administration in the...more
2/10/2017
/ Administrative Appointments ,
America Invents Act ,
Appeals ,
Article III ,
Barack Obama ,
Cheerleaders ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Office ,
Data Breach ,
Denial of Certiorari ,
Disparagement ,
DMCA ,
Exclusive Licenses ,
Fashion Design ,
FDCPA ,
File Sharing ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Google ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
International Trade Commission (ITC) ,
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ,
IP License ,
Lanham Act ,
Lee v Tam ,
Lenz v Universal Music Corp. ,
Misappropriation ,
Non-Appealable Decisions ,
Non-Practicing Entities ,
Online Videos ,
Oracle ,
Patent Trial and Appeal Board ,
Patents ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Popular ,
Privacy Laws ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 337 ,
Software Developers ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
Star Athletica v Varsity Brands ,
Takedown Notices ,
Tariff Act of 1930 ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
Trans-Pacific Partnership ,
Trump Administration ,
Uniforms ,
USPTO ,
YouTube
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently affirmed the Southern District of New York’s order on summary judgment that My Other Bag’s canvas tote bags do not dilute or infringe Louis Vuitton’s trademarks for...more
12/28/2016
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Fashion Branding ,
Fashion Industry ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Louis Vuitton ,
Parody ,
Summary Judgment ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Young Lawyers
On October 24, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after an en banc rehearing in Sunearth, Inc. v. Sun Earth Solar Power Co., LTD., adopted the Octane Fitness standard for determining whether a case is...more
10/26/2016
/ Abuse of Discretion ,
Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Exceptional Case ,
Lanham Act ,
Octane Fitness v. ICON ,
Popular ,
Preponderance of the Evidence ,
Prevailing Party ,
Standard of Review ,
Totality of Circumstances Test ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks
Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined a court had jurisdiction to decide a trademark lawsuit filed by a U.S. grocery store against a Canadian reseller where the products at issue were only...more
8/31/2016
/ Appeals ,
Canada ,
Comity ,
Dismissals ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Grocery Stores ,
International Litigation ,
Lanham Act ,
Reputational Injury ,
Reversal ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Trade Dress ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks ,
Trader Joes ,
Unfair Competition ,
Use in Commerce