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 continue reading...
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 continue reading...
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, continue reading...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has just gone where no other court has gone before. In a tour-de-force judicial opinion, the Court emphatically held that a small sliver of the Lanham Act—the “disparaging trademark” provision in Section 2(a)—violates the First Amendment. continue reading...
As the global nature of the economy and business grows, companies are faced with the challenge of determining when, whether and how to provide notice of trademark rights on product packaging and advertising materials. The laws governing use of notice symbols (or “marking”) and consequences continue reading...
A little over 30 years ago, Bruce Springsteen unleashed “Born in the USA”–the rock anthem about disaffected Vietnam veterans struggling as they returned home. Today, clothing manufacturers and their resellers riffing on that “U.S.A. theme” have unleashed something quite different: class action lawsuits spurred by continue reading...
As we enter the Thanksgiving and holiday season this year, it is particularly apropos to ponder the following question: Is the TTAB going nuts? Congress tells us that the PTO cannot register trademarks that are scandalous or immoral due to Section 2(a) of the Lanham continue reading...
The federal court for the Northern District of California has denied permanent injunctive relief in a lawsuit for trademark infringement and dilution brought by Pinterest against the use of the mark PINTRIPS for a website-based travel planning service. Pinterest, Inc. v. Pintrips, Inc., 13-cv-04608 (N.D. continue reading...
On the eve of Halloween, NFL wide receiver Pierre Garçon dished up quite a treat for FanDuel, the beleaguered fantasy sports company. Garçon, on behalf of himself and other similarly-situated NFL football players, sued FanDuel in Maryland federal court claiming the fantasy sports company is continue reading...
In trademark and advertising disputes, one question frequently rises to the top of the discussion between counsel and client: “Do we need a consumer survey?” Because well-designed surveys can act as proxies for what is happening in the marketplace among relevant consumers, many courts and continue reading...
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...
