Author: Evan Everist

Evan is a partner in Dorsey’s Trademark, Copyright and Advertising Group. He provides counsel to a wide variety of trademark and copyright owners in many industries, including multinational corporations with large international trademark portfolios, local non-profit organizations, and international musical acts.

Fair Use Mashup Theory Ga-Fluppted by Ninth Circuit

Just in time to steal ComicMix’s Christmas, the Ninth Circuit recently held that the bookmaker’s mashup story Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go! (which combines elements of the Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! with Star Trek) is not a defensible fair use…

TTAB Weighs in on Registrability of CBD Trademarks

In a precedential decision earlier this year, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board thinned some of the haze surrounding the registrability of trademarks for hemp-derived CBD products. In line with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office guidelines issued last year, the Board confirmed that marks…

Dispute Over KIVA Trademark Continues to Smolder

A dispute over the trademark KIVA involving use of the mark with health food and cannabis continues to smolder in the Northern District of California. In late 2018, Kiva Health Brands (a national health food and supplements company) sued Kiva Brands (a company selling cannabis-infused…

FDA a Buzzkill for 15 CBD Companies

On November 25, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration sent a wave of warning letters to fifteen CBD companies claiming they are breaking federal food, drug, and cosmetic laws based on their current CBD product marketing and labelling. Prior to this, the FDA had separately…

Time to Face the .MUSIC

And the new top level domain names just keep on coming. As our readers may know, ICANN, the organization that operates the internet domain name system, authorized the launch of the New gTLD Program – the largest expansion of the generic top-level domain name (“gTLD”)…

INTA Boston: Highlights from Bean Town

If you missed the 2019 Annual Meeting of the International Trademark Association in Boston, or if you were there but were spending time with colleagues and friends, the Dorsey trademark team is here to provide a brief overview of some interesting seminars we attended and…

American Airlines Flying High After Copyright Office Reversal

American Airlines recently scored a major win by convincing the Copyright Office to reverse its refusal of an application to register the “American Airlines Flight Symbol.” American Airlines reached its final destination after overcoming myriad delays.  The Copyright Office rejected American Airlines’ copyright application three…