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Lanham Act Trademark Cancellation

Weintraub Tobin

(Podcast) The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration

Weintraub Tobin on

After nearly 30 years of litigation, a federal court has canceled General Cigar’s U.S. trademarks for COHIBA cigars — all because of a little-known treaty and a Cuban brand once favored by Fidel Castro. What does this mean...more

Weintraub Tobin

The Briefing: Trademark Smoked: The Fall of General Cigar’s COHIBA Registration

Weintraub Tobin on

After nearly 30 years of litigation, a federal court has canceled General Cigar’s U.S. trademarks for COHIBA cigars — all because of a little-known treaty and a Cuban brand once favored by Fidel Castro. What does this mean...more

Knobbe Martens

Zoned Out: The Zone of Natural Expansion Doctrine Can Only Be Used Defensively

Knobbe Martens on

DOLLAR FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. v. BRITTEX FINANCIAL, INC. [OPINION] - Before Prost, Taranto, and Hughes.  Appeal from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The zone of natural...more

Fish & Richardson

Trademark Owners May Play Only Zone Defense at the TTAB

Fish & Richardson on

In a precedential decision invoking the “zone of natural expansion” doctrine, on March 19, 2025, the Federal Circuit upheld a decision by the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) cancelling in part registrations for...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Zone of Natural Expansion Is a Shield, Not a Sword

McDermott Will & Emery on

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a Trademark Trial & Appeal Board decision to partially cancel trademarks, ruling that an opposition challenger could not use the zone of natural expansion doctrine to...more

International Lawyers Network

Can U.S. Trademark Registrations Be Cancelled for Genericness?

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

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

The Ninth Circuit Addresses Judicial Power over Trademark Applications and the Lawful Use of Trademarks on Cannabis (I Mean,...

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

The Ninth Circuit issued two opinions in BBK Tobacco & Foods LLP v. Central Coast Agriculture, Inc. finding judicial power over pending trademark applications and an exception shielding trademark registrations for marks used...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Sour Grapes: Winery Minority Ownership Insufficient for Statutory Standing at Trademark Board

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a petition seeking to cancel the registered marks of two wineries, finding the petitioner (a trust owning an interest in a competitor winery) lacked...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

Federal Circuit IP Appeals: Summaries of Key 2023 Decisions (8th Edition): Great Concepts, LLC v. Chutter, Inc., 84 F.4th 1014...

In Great Concepts, the court addressed whether Section 14 of the Lanham Act, which permits cancellation of a mark’s registration if “its registration was obtained fraudulently,” permits cancellation due to the owner’s filing...more

Vondran Legal

Proper grounds to cancel another companies trademark

Vondran Legal on

In business, trademarks are everything. It's how consumers come to know, love and trust your brand. It's a valuable corporate asset, and many disputes can arise of name rights with the explosion of e-commerce and the...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - October 2023: A Limit to Cancel Culture? Federal Circuit Finds Fraud in Connection with Section 15 Declaration...

In 2021, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelled Great Concepts, LLC’s trademark registration for the mark DANTANNA’S for restaurant services under Section 14, after finding that counsel for the Registrant committed...more

McDermott Will & Emery

Here’s a Great Concept: Fraud After Registration Is Not a Basis for Cancellation

McDermott Will & Emery on

In a split panel decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit overturned the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board and ruled that a fraudulent declaration under Section 15 of the Lanham Act is not a basis for...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Federal Circuit Reins in PTAB’s Authority in Trademark Cancellation Proceedings

Vinson & Elkins LLP on

In Great Concepts, LLC v. Chutter, Inc.,1 the Federal Circuit reversed and remanded the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (“Board”) decision cancelling registration of Great Concepts’ trademark due to the filing of a...more

International Lawyers Network

Can Trademark Applications and Administrative Proceedings Subject a Foreign Applicant to Service or Jurisdiction in Court...

Suppose that you are a foreign applicant who either files a trademark application, opposition proceeding, or cancellation proceeding with the USPTO. Can this act of filing subject the foreign applicant to service of process...more

Sullivan & Worcester

The Trademark Modernization Act: New Procedures, New Deadlines and New Standards

Sullivan & Worcester on

On December 18, 2021, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rules implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (TMA) went into effect. The first major overhaul of the Lanham Act since 1998, the TMA introduced...more

Kilpatrick

Changes to Federal Trademark Law and Their Effective Dates Under the Trademark Modernization Act and its Implementing Regulations

Kilpatrick on

I. Introduction - On December 27, 2020, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“TMA”) became law after it passed Congress and was signed by the President as part of the year-end Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2021....more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Trademark Owners: What You Should Know About the USPTO’s Final Rules Implementing the TMA

Morrison & Foerster LLP on

The Trademark Modernization Act (TMA) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) recently announced its final rules for implementing the TMA, the majority of which will...more

Haug Partners LLP

Third Circuit Rules That Trademark Cancellation Proceedings Before The TTAB Do Not Preclude Later Infringement Lawsuits In Federal...

Haug Partners LLP on

On September 17, 2021, in Beasley v. Howard, 14 F.4th 226 (3d Cir. 2021), the Third Circuit joined the Second and Ninth Circuits in ruling that prior trademark cancellation actions in front of the Trademark Trial and Appeal...more

McDermott Will & Emery

TTAB Cancellation Proceedings Not Preclusive in District Court, Even Between Same Parties

McDermott Will & Emery on

Addressing the preclusive effect of judgments by tribunals with limited jurisdiction, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that trademark cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB)...more

Akerman LLP - Marks, Works & Secrets

The Third Circuit Limits Preclusive Effect of the TTAB Rulings

On September 17, 2021, the Third Circuit held in Beasley v. Howard that trademark cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) do not have claim preclusive effect against trademark...more

McDermott Will & Emery

TTAB Judicial Appointments are Determined Constitutionally Sound

McDermott Will & Emery on

Addressing for the first time whether the Supreme Court of the United States’ recent decision in United States v. Arthrex, Inc. also applied to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the US Court of Appeals for the...more

Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C.

MarkIt to Market® - January 2021: Prove It: TMA Sets Forth New Streamlined Approach to Combat the Rise of Fraudulently Registered...

As has been the case in recent years, trademark filings in 2020 again increased over the previous year. While at first glance this may seem to indicate that the U.S. economy continues to grow and innovate, at least some of...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Highlights Part II of the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020: Ex Parte Expungement, Ex Parte Reexamination, and Non-Use...

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

As we wrote in Part 1 of this series, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“TMA”) was signed into law on December 27, 2020, and contained several significant amendments to the Lanham Act. This post will cover three of the...more

Mintz - Trademark & Copyright Viewpoints

The Trademark Modernization Act Establishes New Trademark Cancellation Procedures

On December 27, 2020, the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“the Act”) became law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021. Among other changes, the Act includes important amendments to the Lanham Act...more

Akerman LLP - Marks, Works & Secrets

Lanham Act Preemption of State Law Where Cannabis Trademarks Are At Issue

As cannabis products become legal in more and more states, commercial interest grows in protecting the trademarks associated with those products.  The United States Patent and Trademark Office has maintained its refusal to...more

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