Trademarks

In 1925, New Mexico, which gained statehood in the United States in 1912, adopted a design for its flag featuring a sun symbol belonging to the Zia peoples. And according to the tribe, the symbol was secret and stolen from the Zia, who lost both ownership and control over it, ... Read More

This is one of those relatively rare occasions when a party gathers enough evidence of third-party use and registrations to affect the outcome of a Section 2(d) proceeding. The Board dismissed Gallo's opposition to registration of the mark THUNDER ROAD for "alcoholic beverages, namely, Tennessee sour mash whiskey and moonshine," ... Read More

By Angela Peco Edited by Elissa D. Hecker GENERAL NEWS President Trump Will Nominate William Barr as Attorney General William Barr previously served as Attorney General under George H.W. Bush from 1991 to 1993. As head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, he advanced a strong view of ... Read More

The ways to protect traditional knowledge and folklore against misuse and misappropriation are under discussion this week at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Member states are trying to find consensus on draft articles of a potential treaty, with a focus on core subjects, such as the scope of protection, and ... Read More

An agriculture committee of the European Council today adopted an agreement on labelling of spirit drinks, giving them higher protection by adding seven years to the World Trade Organization minimum intellectual property standard. ... Read More

Under a recently established USPTO pilot program "to explore procedures for expediting certain cancellation proceedings to further the goal of maintaining the accuracy and integrity of the U.S. Trademark Register," the Board initiated an "expedited cancellation" proceeding involving Jeffrey E. Martin's registration for the mark MYST, in the stylized form ... Read More

Sara Parrello and Fabio AngeliniIn law, perhaps one of the most famous aphorisms is “I know it when I see it”, which Justice Potter Stewart used to describe his threshold test for obscenity (in Jacobellis v. Ohio,  378 U.S. 184 (1964)). The CJEU, in case C‑310/17, delivered a decision on ... Read More

Echoing the United States' Special 301 Report on alleged inadequacy of trading partners’ protection of US intellectual property rights, the European Commission has released its first ever Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List, which exposes rogue cyberlockers, stream-ripping sites as well as peer-to-peer and BitTorrent indexing sites among the threats to ... Read More

The USPTO refused to register the mark OVER THE FLOOR, finding it to be merely descriptive of "bath mats; personal exercise mats; meditation mats; gymnasium exercise mats; yoga mats; door mats; floor pads and non-skid floor mats in the nature of non-slip pads for use under rugs or carpet to ... Read More

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Big platform providers and small hosters alike shall be obliged to censor, according to a draft regulation presented by the European Commission in mid-September and accepted by EU member states at their Council meeting today. ... Read More

The USPTO refused registration of the mark SNAP FUNNEL for funnels [FUNNEL disclaimed], finding the mark likely to cause confusion with the registered mark SNAP & POUR for a “funnel which snaps onto plastic containers, including automotive fluids and household cleaners and detergents.” The goods overlap, but what about the ... Read More

Kluwer Patent BlogTo ensure you don’t miss out on interesting IP law developments reported on our other IP blogs, we will, on a regular basis, provide you with an overview of the top 3 most-read posts from each of our IP law blogs.  Here are the top posts from September, ... Read More

Sascha AbrarThe Regional High Court of Nuremberg rejected a request for an interim injunction in a trade mark case on appeal, considering that the defendant had already stopped the trade mark infringement at the time when the applicant (plaintiff) was seeking injunctive relief (judgment of 10 October 2018, 3 W ... Read More

European creators are alleging a scaremongering campaign by YouTube, and more than 30 entities representing creators in France say Google and YouTube are leading a massive fake information campaign against the European copyright directive currently under discussion in order to protect their commercial interests. ... Read More

The USPTO refused registration of the mark DE BEERS TRUE BRILLIANT for jewelry and related retail store services, finding the mark likely to cause confusion with the registered mark TRU BRILLIANCE for jewelry. The goods overlap, and applicant's services are related to jewelry. But what about the marks? How do ... Read More

Michal HavlikAmendments to the Czech and Slovak Trademark Acts implementing the EU trademark reform of 2015 have been recently passed by the respective parliaments. The amendments will become effective on 1 January 2019 in Czechia and on 14 January 2019 in Slovakia. There are 3 major changes to be noted: ... Read More

Missouri made history in August 2018 when it became the first state to regulate the use of the word “meat” on product labels. The new legislation takes aim at companies selling plant-based meat alternatives. It also targets producers of lab-grown meat products, known as “clean meat” or “cell-based meat.” The post ... Read More

Indian Trademark Statistics for December (First Week) 2018, HBO Sound Trademark, Chhota Bheem Fights Counterfeiters, Lord Ganesha for Beer? Erode Turmeric GI Accepted and more, brought to you by the Trademark Attorneys at BananaIP (BIP) Counsels. TRADEMARK QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Mass advertising can help build brands, but authenticity is ... Read More

NEW YORK -- United States intellectual property stakeholders from academic, business and legal backgrounds gathered recently to discuss how to increase public support to strengthen the intellectual property rights system in the US, in light of China’s steady rise in numbers of patent and trademark filings. US IP stakeholders argued ... Read More

Chatham International opposed an application to register the mark VIA SAINT JACQUES for goods identified as "wines with the appellation of origin Alsace," on the ground of likelihood of confusion with the registered marks JACQUIN'S, in standard character form and JACQUIN in the stylized from shown below, for brandy, gin, ... Read More

By Jana S. Farmer Edited by Elissa D. Hecker General News President George H. W. Bush Dies At 94 George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States, passed away on Friday at age 94. In his later years, he took good-will trips around the globe to raise funds ... Read More

By Barry Skidelsky, Esq, EASL Chair In one of the first nationally prominent lawsuits concerning podcasts, some of the world's leading record labels and music publishers recently sued the owner of pokernews.com for willful copyright infringement due to unauthorized use of music in the defendant's poker related podcasts. Additional causes ... Read More

Peter ReapThe Trademark Trail and Appeal Board erred in finding that there is no likelihood of confusion between Omaha Steaks International’s over two dozen registered marks, each containing the words “Omaha Steaks,” and Greater Omaha Packing Company’s applied for GREATER OMAHA PROVIDING THE HIGHEST QUALITY BEEF mark (the Opposed Mark), ... Read More

Global intellectual property filing numbers kept rising unabated in 2017, as China continued to pull the numbers upwards. The World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018, published today, also showed what the head of the World Intellectual Property Organization qualified as extraordinary growth in trademark applications. And he remarked on the increasing ... Read More

The Board granted Opposer 784’s motion for summary judgment, applying issue preclusion to the issue of nonownership of the mark shown below for, inter alia, restaurant services. 784 8th Street Corp. dba ZAN'S v. Denise Ruggiero, Opposition No. 91214883 (November 2, 2018) [not precedential].The subject opposition was suspended in view ... Read More

On October 30, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision from the International Trade Court invalidating the Converse Chuck Taylor sneaker design trade dress.  Converse Inc. v. ITC, No. 2016-2497, 2018 WL 5536405 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 30, 2018).  At first glance, this appeared to be great news for ... Read More

Louise Thorning AhleThe Danish Parliament, Folketinget, passed a new Danish Trademark Act (TMA) on 20 November 2018. The TMA implements the harmonisation of the relevant EU directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of 16 December 2015). The new TMA will implement a number of changes, including: It becomes optional whether or not ... Read More

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (T-T-A-B not Tee-tab) has scheduled seven (VII) oral hearings for the month of December 2018. The hearings will be held in the Madison Building in Alexandria, Virginia. Briefs and other papers for these cases may be found at TTABVUE via the links provided. December ... Read More

The number of trademark applications being filed by foreign companies with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has been growing steadily – and in China’s case rapidly – since 2013. In 2013, a total of 328,180 trademark applications were filed in the USPTO, of which 57,977 (17%) were ... Read More