Category: Trademarks

Dorsey & Whitney Seminar Replay: Simon Tam & The Slants

On January 28, 2016, Dorsey & Whitney’s Seattle office hosted a CLE panel discussion regarding In Re Simon Shiao Tam, the Federal Circuit decision holding that the “disparaging” trademark prohibition in Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act violated the First Amendment.   The panel featured Simon…

Black Ops Mission Accomplished by Federal Trademark Registration

A recent district court decision granting a preliminary injunction in The Brooklyn Brewery Corp. v. Black Ops Brewing, Inc. demonstrates the advantage of owning a federal trademark registration when products bearing the registered mark are not sold nationwide. The case, which arose in federal court for…

Louis Vuitton and My Other Bag – Do You Get The Joke?

In a recent post, we discussed the trademark parody defense in the context of a California district court decision holding that the owner of the Superman “S” logo had adequately stated infringement claims asserted against a “DAD” t-shirt with a shield design allegedly parodying the…

Superman, Superdad, and the Limits of a Trademark Parody Defense

Superman has triumphed yet again, this time with help from the federal court in the Central District of California. It wasn’t actually Superman that scored this particular victory, but DC Comics, owner of the trademark rights in Superman’s iconic shield design. On December 15, 2015,…