Affirming a summary judgment decision finding no trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that the district court properly focused on domestic activity with regard...more
The Lanham Act is a collection of federal statutes that allows trademark owners the right to sue and recover damages from those who infringe their trademark by marketing and selling similar products under a brand name that...more
Two years after the US Supreme Court’s decision in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., US trademark owners and global businesses continue to grapple with its implications for cross-border enforcement. The...more
At a glance, a unanimous Supreme Court, holding that two provisions of the trademark-governing Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1114(1)(a) and 1125(a)(1)) do not apply extraterritorially and extend only to alleged infringement in...more
In a tIPsheet article titled “SCOTUS rules Lanham Act does not have extraterritorial reach” published on July 20, 2023, we discussed Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., 600 U.S. 412 (2023), a U.S. Supreme Court case...more
Does federal trademark law reach conduct outside of the United States? The Supreme Court addressed this question recently in Abitron Austria v. Hetronic International, Inc., which prompted us to revisit a related issue we...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s end-of-term decision in Abitron v. Hetronic seems to have created more questions than answers about U.S. brand owners’ ability to leverage the federal Lanham Act in global trademark disputes. In the...more
On June 29, 2023, in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., 600 U.S. ___ (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Lanham Act could not extend to trademark infringement that occurred almost entirely outside...more
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated trademark decision in Abitron Austria v. Hetronic International concerning the global reach of the Lanham Act. The Court determined that U.S. law does not extend...more
In the United States, trademarks are governed on the federal level by the Lanham Act (also known as the Trademark Act of 1946), which was enacted on July 5, 1946, and is codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq. The Lanham Act...more
U.S. businesses selling abroad cannot enforce domestic trademarks against foreign entities selling infringing goods into the United States through strawmen, according to a recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in...more
On June 29, the United States Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision regarding the foreign reach of the Lanham Act, the federal statute that prohibits trademark infringement. The decision confirms the...more
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
On June 29, 2023, in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Lanham Act does not have an extraterritorial scope and applies only in cases where the alleged infringing “use...more
The Supreme Court recently ruled in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc. that Lanham Act (Act) remedies for trademark infringement do not extend to infringing conduct that takes place outside the United...more
In its recent decision in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., the Supreme Court instructed that certain trademark infringement claims can only be pursued where the infringing conduct occurs domestically. The...more
As the United States Supreme Court concluded its most recent term, a flurry of consequential decisions were released. As is typical, some of the most controversial decisions were released towards the end of the term (which...more
In a decision that may make it more difficult for brand owners to enforce their marks against infringers located outside of the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States vacated the judgment of the US Court of...more
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., limited the extraterritorial reach of the Lanham Act. The majority opinion was written by Justice Alito and joined by Justices...more
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on June 29, 2023, addressing the scope of federal trademark law on conduct occurring outside of the United States. The case, Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc.,...more
There have been many newsworthy rulings coming out of the Supreme Court in the last two weeks, so it is understandable if you missed this one. On Thursday, June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Tenth Circuit wrongly...more
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the geographic limits for U.S. trademark enforcement. Just as with enforcement of registered copyrights and issued patents, the Supreme Court ruled that a trademark owner may...more
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court decided Abitron Austria GMBH v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., No. 21-1043, addressing the extraterritoriality of the Lanham Act. The Court held that §1114(1)(a) and §1125(a)(1) of the Lanham Act do...more
On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the petitioner in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International Inc. However, the justices were divided 5-4 as to the precise reasoning and what facts...more
Can a party be held liable in the United States for trademark infringement based on use of a mark in other countries? In Abitron Austria GmbH et al. v. Hetronic Int’l, Inc., 600 U.S. __ (2023), the Supreme Court recently...more