Sharpen Your Sword: Adduce Proof When Claiming Prior Copyright to Challenge a Trademark in China
A Colorado federal court denied a franchisor’s request for preliminary injunction that would enforce a non-compete provision against a former franchisee. The franchisor of spice and tea shops known as Spice & Tea Merchants...more
Two of the busiest airports in the United States are battling with their smaller counterparts to retain trademark rights in the name of the major cities the airports serve. While the smaller airports want to capitalize on...more
In BBK Tobacco & Foods LLP v. Cent. Coast Agric., Inc., 97 F.4th 668 (9th Cir. 2024), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that federal district courts have power to adjudicate trademark applications pursuant to the Lanham...more
Joining a series of precedential decisions about descriptiveness, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently affirmed a refusal to register Sheet Pile, LLC’s (“Applicant”) mark ZPILE on the Principal Register, on the...more
Suppose that you have obtained a U.S. trademark registration for your trademark on goods or services for your business. Can your trademark registration be cancelled with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office based on it being...more
Hitherto, if cancellation or invalidation proceedings were brought against the United Kingdom designation of an International design or trademark where no representative had been appointed in the United Kingdom, the owner...more
The China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) circulated a draft amendment to the PRC Trademark Law (TML Draft Amendment) for public comment on January 13, 2023. The TML Draft Amendment is the product of...more
Join Sterne Kessler attorneys for our inaugural Trademark Year in Review webinar, where speakers will offer summaries and analysis of particularly noteworthy cases from 2022, along with updates on the latest in U.S. trademark...more
A considerable amount of trademarks may also be protected by Chinese Copyright Law, when they meet the requirements of “work”. And the protection to works is NOT limited by the classification of goods, so claiming prior...more
With the increasing protection of IP rights on e-commerce platforms, trademark registrants’ rights are respected and protected. It is difficult to sell counterfeit products on e-commerce platforms. For example, according to...more
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, “quarantine” has become a term that is used very frequently in everyday life. In fact, there is also “quarantine” in the field of trademarks. Article 50 of the Trademark Law of...more
Patent and trademark issues effecting pharmaceutical laboratories, biotechs, food supplements and dietary products professionals, cosmetics companies and medical devices manufacturers is continually evolving across France and...more
The UK Court of Appeal has today given judgment in the long-running trade mark dispute between Sky and SkyKick, in one of the most important and keenly awaited trade mark decisions of the last few years. The Court of Appeal...more
China, like the United States, is a party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. As such, in general any literary or artistic work created in the US will also be protected in China....more
The Cancellation Division of EUIPO has recently issued a resounding decision declaring the invalidity of the figurative trademark representing the “Flower thrower”, one of the most iconic Banksy’s mural paintings. The...more
In a recent decision, the Cancellation Division of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) declared the word trademark MALLE invalid. According to the EUIPO, especially the German public would have understood the...more
Section 15 of the Lanham Act, subject to certain specified exceptions, provides that the right of an owner “to use [a] registered mark in commerce for the goods or services on or in connection with which such registered mark...more
The eagerly anticipated decision of the European Court of Justice in the case of Sky v. SkyKick [Case C 371/18] was delivered on January 29, 2020. ...more
2020 brings significant changes in the field of trademark law for proceedings before the German Patent and Trademark Office (GPTO). By 1 May 2020 – for the first time – there will be administrative proceedings for declaration...more
By judgment of 24 September 2019 (T-219/18), the General Court ruled that the Community design of a scooter registered for a Chinese company does not infringe the rights of a traditional Italian company to its famous scooter....more
Every Tuesday, family, friends, and coworkers gather at restaurants across the globe for the now-beloved “Taco Tuesday”; nothing says a good time like discount tacos and margarita specials! It turns out that one of...more
When it comes to proving use of marks in commerce, perception by consumers is everything. If consumers perceive a mark as identifying only a particular component or feature of the goods in a specimen, the PTO will likely...more
In its judgment C-693/17 earlier this year, the CJEU confirmed a decision of the GC in design invalidity proceedings, in which the proprietor of a trademark protecting the image of product packaging successfully took action...more
Addressing for the first time whether International Trade Commission (ITC) trademark infringement rulings have a preclusive effect on district court litigation, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the...more