Starting a few years ago, the FTC began increasing its efforts to address online disclosures in new media. For example, in 2013, the FTC issued .com Disclosures: How To Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising, which...more
In an important decision delineating the boundaries of fair use of another person’s trademark, the Second Circuit announced a standard by which nominative fair use of a trademark will be evaluated in that Circuit in...more
In an important decision delineating the boundaries of fair use of another person’s trademark, the Second Circuit announced a standard by which nominative fair use of a trademark will be evaluated in that Circuit in...more
The Federal Circuit recently provided additional guidance concerning whether an applied-for mark is generic in In re Cordua Restaurants, Inc., (May 13, 2016). This case stemmed from the United States Patent and Trademark...more
Belmora LLC filed a petition for reconsideration en banc of the Fourth Circuit’s FLANAX decision in Belmora LLC v Bayer Consumer Care AG, Appeal No. 15-1335 (4th Cir. March 23, 2016). As we previously have blogged...more
We previously blogged on Judge Proctor’s (ND Ala.) order directing the United States Patent and Trademark Office (the “Board”) to comply with the Court’s prior order, approving a settlement agreement between the University of...more
In response to the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) petition for writ of certiorari in to the U.S. Supreme Court In re Tam (“THE SLANTS” case), the owners of the Washington Redskins filed their own...more
5/2/2016
/ Blackhorse v Pro-Football ,
Disparagement ,
Due Process ,
Fifth Amendment ,
Football ,
Native American Issues ,
NFL ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Redskins ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO
On April 20, 2016, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Federal Circuit seeking Supreme Court review of that Court’s decision in In re Tam, 117 USPQ2d 1001...more
4/25/2016
/ Disparagement ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Lanham Act ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
Strict Scrutiny Standard ,
The Slants ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
Unconstitutional Condition ,
USPTO
In today’s increasingly global economy, trademark owners are more frequently butting up against the territorial limitations of trademark law. It has long been a matter of black letter law that trademark rights are...more
4/18/2016
/ Bayer ,
False Advertising ,
False Association ,
Foreign Trademark ,
Lanham Act ,
Patent Litigation ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Pharmaceutical Patents ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
Unfair Competition ,
USPTO
In a decision bound to impact trademark prosecution practice in the future, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) recently found that a consent agreement between a...more
Recently, a District Court judge issued a scathing rebuke to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama et al. v. Houndstooth Mafia Enterprises LLC, (N.D. Alabama February...more
The Ninth Circuit recently addressed the burden of proof applicable to the first sale defense to a copyright infringement claim. That defense provides that, once a copy of a work is lawfully sold or transferred, the new owner...more
The Second Circuit recently issued its latest ruling in a long-running legal battle over the trademark rights to the STOLICHNAYA trademark. In this latest decision in the 12-year dispute, the Court ruled that an agency of the...more
In a landmark First Amendment decision relating to the Lanham (Trademark) Act, the Federal Circuit, en banc, struck down § 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), the statutory provision barring registration of...more
In a landmark First Amendment decision relating to the Lanham (Trademark) Act, the Federal Circuit, en banc, struck down § 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a), the statutory provision barring registration of...more
In Baldwin, et al. v. EMI Feist Catalog, Inc., the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was tasked with determining when and how the rights to the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” (the “Song”) would properly terminate. The...more
In a ruling bound to please 15 year-old boys everywhere, the USPTO Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) reversed the Examining Attorney’s refusal to register the trademark NUT SACK DOUBLE BROWN ALE (in standard character...more
11/5/2015
/ Beer ,
Breweries ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Lanham Act ,
Offensive Language ,
Trademark Act ,
Trademark Application ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Wine & Alcohol ,
Young Lawyers
On October 30, 2015 the Second Circuit held that an unauthorized parody that makes “fair use” of its source material is eligible for copyright protection and that copyright protection may extend to a work that exhibits the...more
In The North Face Apparel Corp. v. Sanyang Industry Co., Ltd., Opp. No. 91187593 (September 18, 2015), the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) handed The North Face Apparel Corp. (“The North Face”) significant victories...more
9/30/2015
/ Automotive Industry ,
Fashion Branding ,
Fashion Design ,
Fashion Industry ,
Motion to Amend ,
Retail Market ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ,
Trademarks
On September 15, 2015, the Southern District of California awarded over $500,000 in attorney’s fees to a songwriter who successfully prevailed on his right to terminate grants of copyright under 17 U.S.C. § 203 because...more
The number of successful oppositions against trademark applications based on a claim that the applicant had “no bona fide intent to use” has been increasing in recent years. On September 10, 2015, in Swiss Grill Ltd. v. Wolf...more
n Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. et al, the Ninth Circuit held that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) requires copyright holders to consider fair use before sending a takedown notice and that the failure to do...more
9/16/2015
/ Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Digital Media ,
DMCA ,
Fair Use ,
Good Faith ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Music Industry ,
Online Videos ,
Summary Judgment ,
Takedown Notices ,
The Copyright Act ,
Universal ,
YouTube
On August 25, 2015, the Southern District of New York held that the archiving function of a media monitoring service was protected by fair use and that the e-mailing feature could qualify for fair use if certain protective...more
On August 19, 2015, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a “V-I-C-T-O-R-Y” for the world’s largest designer and manufacturer of cheerleader uniforms in its copyright infringement lawsuit against another cheerleading gear...more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently re-designated as precedential its May 12, 2015 decision that affirmed refusal to register a mark because the applicant’s specimens – showing the proposed mark in plural form,...more