(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
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
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
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
The appellants, Interprofession du Gruyère and Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Gruyère, are two consortiums, Swiss and French, that regulate use of the term ‘gruyere’ to refer only to cheeses produced in the Gruyère district...more
When you hear the word “gruyere,” what comes to mind? A bucolic region in the mountains of Switzerland? Perhaps the Gruyère region of neighboring France? Or, more likely, you think of a type of cheese....more
On February 2, in In re: Vox Populi Registry Ltd., the Federal Circuit affirmed the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) refusal to register a standard character mark and a stylized mark, both related to the “.sucks”...more
Scott Hervey and Josh Escovedo discuss the case where Peloton petitions to establish that SPIN and SPINNING are now generic terms against #MadDogg?'s trademark. Read the blog: http://bit.ly/2OmGtgv?. Listen to the podcast:...more
Have you ever been to an indoor cycling class? If so, you most likely have heard the term “spin class,” or referred to the act itself as “spinning.” Mad Dogg Athletics, Inc. would take offense, however, calling such uses...more
Jones Day's Meredith Wilkes and Anna Raimer discuss 2020's most significant developments in trademark law and preview what's to come in 2021, including possible progress in Washington on the highly anticipated Trademark...more
PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO cheese and CHAMPAGNE sparkling wine. These are not only delicious products, welcome at any well-appointed summer picnic, but also geographical certification marks – a subset of trademarks limited to use by...more
On June 30, 2020, the United States Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated decision regarding the trademark application of Booking.com. In United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com, the Court held that a mark...more
How appropriate that the first-ever Supreme Court case to consider whether trademarks used on the internet can be registered should also be the first in which oral argument was conducted remotely. The issue in this historic...more