(Podcast) The Briefing: The Fall of SUPER HERO – When Trademarks Become Generic
The Briefing: The Fall of SUPER HERO – When Trademarks Become Generic
How To Select a Strong Trademark
The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: SPIN Trademark Has Peloton Wrapped Around the Axel
JONES DAY TALKS®: Women in IP: 2020 in Review and a Look Toward 2021
Suppose that you want to register your trademark that is in a non-English language on goods or services for your business in the United States. Will your non-English language trademark need to be translated to English to...more
In a precedential decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently blessed the test used by the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) for denying registration to PT Medisafe Technologies for a...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board’s refusal to register the mark VETEMENTS for clothing and related retail services, finding that the mark was generic under the...more
Addressing for the first time the test for determining whether a color mark is generic, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit adopted the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board’s Milwaukee test as the appropriate standard,...more
In refusing registration of the color green for “chloroprene medical examination gloves,” the Federal Circuit adopted — for the first time — a legal test for genericness of color marks. The decision underscores the high...more
In Re: PT Medisafe Technologies, No. 2023-1573 (Fed. Cir. April 29, 2025) - On April 29, 2025, the Federal Circuit adopted a test from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) for determining whether a color mark is...more
BULLSHINE DISTILLERY LLC v. SAZERAC BRANDS, LLC - Before Moore, Reyna and Taranto. Appeal from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. In assessing genericness, the TTAB considers how the mark was understood at the time of...more
Suppose that you have obtained a U.S. trademark registration for your trademark on goods or services for your business. Can your trademark registration be cancelled with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office based on...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that a district court does not need to accept both parties’ stipulation that a mark is distinctive but instead is permitted to make an evidentiary inquiry in determining...more
Last month, the creators of beloved characters like “Superman” and “Spider-Man” declined to come to their own rescue when their SUPER HERO and SUPER HEROES registrations were cancelled by a default judgment from the U.S....more
Popular brands face attacks from all sides, from competitors trying to chip away at market share, to bad actors seeking to profit from counterfeit or knockoff products. However, one lesser-known threat arises when your...more
For more than half a century, Marvel Comics and DC Comics have jointly owned the trademark ‘Superhero.’ However, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently granted a petition to cancel that mark because it became generic....more
I distinctly remember purchasing the Superman/Spiderman team-up when it came out in 1981. It was an oversized comic book, with heavier than usual pages and a vibrant color scheme, and that made it perfect for laying it out on...more
Building a strong and distinctive brand identity for your business is crucial for driving sales, fostering consumer loyalty, and standing out in any industry, and more so for emerging and rapidly evolving sectors such as...more
As part of our series on trademarks as critical assets for businesses, this article discusses the importance of selecting and clearing a new or altered trademark for use and registration in the United States. Trademark...more
On June 26, 2024, the Province of Québec released the long-awaited final amendments to the Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business (Regulation), which amend multiple French-language requirements, including...more
On January 10, 2024, the Regulation to amend mainly the Regulation respecting the language of commerce and business (Draft Regulation) was published in the Gazette Officielle du Québec. The Draft Regulation was eagerly...more
Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considered whether “gruyere” cheese can be registered as a trademark in the United States, or whether it is merely a generic term that is not entitled to...more
In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a rule that the combination of a generic term and a generic top-level domain (“gTLD”) is per se generic. See USPTO v. Booking.com B.V., 140 S. Ct. 2298 (2020) (“Booking.com”). In...more
One of the signs of a healthy trademark is a certain level of distinctiveness. Distinctiveness is related to consumers’ love and recognition of a mark as an indicator of a product’s source, such that consumers trust the mark...more
Thank you for reading the July 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we continue our three-part series that closely examines ways to lose trademark rights with a discussion of genericide. We...more
Thank you for reading the May 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss Taco Bell's attempt to cancel two TACO TUESDAY trademark registrations, and a precedential TTAB decision...more
Taco Bell’s recent efforts to liberate the phrase “Taco Tuesday” presents an opportunity to review the distinctions between marks that are generic and those that fail to function as a trademark....more
In a decision characterized by the National Milk Producers Federation as a "momentous victory for American consumers, farmers and food manufacturers" and a "huge victory for worldwide producers" of gruyere cheese, the U.S....more