Earlier this year the United States Patent and Trademark Office proposed a rule requiring foreign-domiciled trademark applicants, registrants, and parties to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Proceedings to be represented by licensed U.S. attorneys. Following public comments, the PTO issued the final rule on July…
Many practitioners take for granted the fact that any TTAB deadlines that fall on a Saturday, Sunday or Federal holiday are automatically extended to the following business day. As it turns out, this isn’t always the case. A recent decision on a Petition to the…
Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board a decision on an ex parte appeal regarding a likelihood of confusion between the applicant’s mark GUILD MORTGAGE COMPANY & Design for mortgage banking services and a…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s blockbuster rulings in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal represented a major shift in federal pleading standards. Resolution of motions to dismiss frequently turns on whether a complaint meets Twombly’s so-called “plausibility” standard. In the context of a…
In the magical land of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a new chapter has been added to the trademark fairytale: consumers may have a real interest in preventing the exclusive appropriation of merely descriptive or generic terms by trademark owners. The Trademark Trial and…
Late last year, in a decision that bears continued attention, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board held that oppositions to Madrid Protocol applications filed under Section 66(a) are limited to the grounds set forth in the electronic filing ESTTA cover sheet. Serralles, Inc. v. Kabushiki…
Back in February, we covered the trademark dispute between the U.S. Army and the Las Vegas Golden Knights professional ice hockey team. As we predicted, the Army and the Golden Knights have now settled that matter by executing a co-existence agreement allowing both parties to continue…
TheTMCA.com blog has had a busy first half of 2018 with a total of 62 posts so far this year. Thank you to our loyal readership, which keeps growing. In case you missed them, here are our top 8 posts of 2018 so far, with…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: an OB-GYN you probably don’t know named Dr. Drai applies to register his name as a trademark and ends up in a dispute with famous rapper Dr. Dre because the rapper fears there will be confusion between…
May 7 was no day at the beach for Multi-Media Tech. Ventures, Ltd., whose registrations for the mark GIDGET were cancelled in a precedential opinion by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Yazhong Investing, Ltd. v. Multi-Media Tech. Ventures, Ltd. It is unclear whether there is…
Jeffrey CadwellJeff advises clients on the availability, registrability, and stre...
Michael KeyesJ. Michael Keyes is an intellectual property attorney with exten...
Kaleb McNeelyAs a partner in the Trial Group, Kaleb practices primarily in the ...
Sarah RobertsonSarah has over fifteen years’ experience helping clients prot...
Fara SunderjiFara assists clients in the development and execution of all type...
Charlene KroghCharlene Krogh is a Partner in Dorsey’s top-ranked Tradem...
Evan EveristEvan is a partner in Dorsey’s Trademark, Copyright and Adverti...