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 watched case about damages and the statute of limitations under the Copyright Act, the U.S. Supreme Court held yesterday in a 6-3 decision that, so long as claims are timely, the “Copyright Act contains no...more
5/13/2024
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Damages ,
Discovery Rule ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Music Industry ,
SCOTUS ,
Statute of Limitations ,
The Copyright Act ,
Warner Chappell Music v Nealy
The United States Supreme Court recently granted a petition for certiorari to review a Ninth Circuit decision and resolve the issue of whether, when parties enter into an arbitration agreement with a delegation clause, the...more
11/14/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Blockchain ,
Certiorari ,
Class Action ,
Coinbase ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Delegation Clauses ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS
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
The Supreme Court’s June 29, 2023, decision in Abitron Austria GMBH v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., No. 21-1043, ended decades of circuit splits on the standard for determining the extraterritorial reach of the Lanham Act (see our...more
7/14/2023
/ Abitron Austria GmbH v Hetronic International Inc ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
Foreign Jurisdictions ,
Foreign Sales ,
Intellectual Property Litigation ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
International Trademark Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Use in Commerce
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
On June 8, 2023, the United States Supreme Court published its long-awaited decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC—a trademark dispute between whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s and VIP Products, the...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
Circuit courts have struggled for decades to adopt a uniform approach for when to apply the Lanham Act extraterritorially. That struggle may end soon. In the Abitron Austria case, the Supreme Court is set to clarify the scope...more
It’s not uncommon for individuals or small businesses to try to save money by filing copyright applications themselves. It’s also not uncommon for some of these registrations to include factual or legal errors, jeopardizing...more
On June 24, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Iancu v. Brunetti, struck down the Lanham Act’s prohibition on the registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks. Justice Kagan wrote for the 6-3 majority, holding that the...more
8/25/2019
/ Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
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
As the U.S. Supreme Court kicks off its 2018 term this week, it prepares to take up a series of firsts, including questions about the America Invents Act, securities fraud and privacy-related class action litigation. At the...more
10/2/2018
/ America Invents Act ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Arbitration ,
Class Members ,
Contract Interpretation ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cy Pres Funds ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Fee Awards ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Life Sciences ,
Patent Litigation ,
Patents ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Prior Art ,
Privacy Laws ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Settlement ,
Split of Authority ,
Technology Sector ,
The Copyright Act ,
Video Games
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that allegations that Spokeo Inc. published an inaccurate consumer report in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act established a concrete injury sufficient to confer...more
8/18/2017
/ Article III ,
Background Checks ,
Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
SCOTUS ,
Screening Procedures ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing
Despite being short one justice for much of the year, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down multiple significant decisions this past term that can unsettle long-standing legal understandings in multiple technology fields. These...more
8/10/2017
/ Bristol-Myers Squibb Co v Superior Court of California - San Francisco County ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Disparagement ,
Extraterritoriality Rules ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Impression Products v Lexmark International ,
Jurisdiction ,
Laches ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Microsoft v Baker ,
Music Industry ,
Online Platforms ,
Patent Exhaustion ,
Patent Infringement ,
Patents ,
Petrella v. MGM ,
SCOTUS ,
Social Networks ,
Star Athletica v Varsity Brands ,
TC Heartland LLC v Kraft Foods ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
Venue
After a streak of six patent decisions uniformly overruling the Federal Circuit, and for the first time all term, the Supreme Court finally handed the Federal Circuit a win this week. In its landmark ruling in Matal v. Tam...more
6/22/2017
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Football ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Matal v Tam ,
Music Industry ,
NFL ,
Redskins ,
SCOTUS ,
Team Mascots ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
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
On September 29, 2016, the Supreme Court agreed to review Lee v. Tam, better known as “THE SLANTS” case, to assess the constitutionality of the Trademark Office’s refusal to register disparaging marks under Section 2(a) of...more
10/28/2016
/ Certiorari ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Lee v Tam ,
SCOTUS ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
Vagueness
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
In the first substantial trademark case in over a decade, the Supreme Court unanimously decided that a jury can apply the tacking doctrine and decide whether two trademarks, used by a single party, convey the same commercial...more
The America Invents Act (AIA) came into law back in September 2011, but it was not until last March that its provisions were completely phased in. The changes last year included not only the switch from a “first-to-invent” to...more
2/25/2014
/ America Invents Act ,
Beastie Boys ,
CLS Bank v Alice Corp ,
Copyright ,
Covered Business Method Patents ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Fair Use ,
First-to-File ,
First-to-Invent ,
GoldieBlox ,
Inter Partes Review (IPR) Proceeding ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Patents ,
Post-Grant Review ,
SCOTUS ,
STEM ,
Trade Secrets ,
Trademark Litigation