The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) offerings and integrations in recent years has sent sepia-toned twentieth-century legal doctrines scrambling to keep up with decidedly technicolor twenty-first century technology....more
On December 21, 2020, Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 and the act was signed into law on December 27, 2020. But don’t let the bland title fool you. ...more
In a case “test[ing] the limits of the extraterritorial application of the Copyright and Lanham Acts,” the D.C. Circuit affirms the dismissal of design-your-own pizza restaurant &pizza’s lawsuit against an Edinburgh-based...more
The United States Supreme Court holds that adding a top-level domain, like “.com”, to an otherwise generic term does not automatically result in a generic composite, and that a genericness determination must consider the...more
7/6/2020
/ Acquired Distinctiveness ,
Appeals ,
Booking.com ,
Domain Name Registration ,
Domain Names ,
Generic Marks ,
Lanham Act ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
United States Patent and Trademark Office v Booking.com BV ,
USPTO
Yesterday, the US Supreme Court announced its opinion in Iancu v. Brunetti, holding that the Lanham Act’s provisions barring the registration of “scandalous” or “immoral” trademarks are unconstitutional under the First...more
6/25/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Brand owners seeking to register cannabis-related trademarks take note: the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently issued guidance regarding the effects of the 2018 Farm Bill on the registration of trademarks for...more
6/4/2019
/ Brand ,
Cannabidiol (CBD) oil ,
Cannabis Products ,
Farm Bill ,
Federal Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) ,
GRAS ,
Hemp ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Lanham Act ,
Marijuana Related Businesses ,
Marijuana-Infused Edibles ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO