The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has announced the retirement of its Electronic Patent Assignment System (EPAS) and Electronic Trademark Assignment System (ETAS) and the launch of its new Assignment...more
Last week, the New Jesey local restaurant — Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar in Somers Point — gave up its “Taco Tuesday” trademark in New Jersey, in favor of resolving a legal dispute with Taco Bell. This comes on the heels of...more
Anyone who’s followed this blog knows that I’ve done a few (really more than a few) posts about the evolution of the Washington football team’s trademark battles. As a reminder, after ultimately winning its trademark fight to...more
Commencing August 1, 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is modernizing the patent and trademark assignment request process because, going forward, users will submit requests virtually using the Electronic...more
On December 18, 2021, regulations implementing the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 went into effect. According to the USPTO’s website, the changes provide individuals, businesses, and the USPTO with “new tools to clear...more
Whether the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) possessed trademark registrations for its own trademarks was honestly not something I had ever thought about before. But then I received a link to the Director’s...more
ICYMI, a new Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP) was released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last month. The July 2021 revision replaces and supersedes the October 2018 version, and it...more
Throughout this summer, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is offering its series of virtual webinars dubbed “Trademark Basics Boot Camp.” The series appears to be tailored to small business owners and...more
Thursday I attended the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) virtual webinar on trademark trends and current developments in the United States and in Israel. Among the speakers were Andrei Iancu, the Under...more
To apply for a federally-registered trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), an applicant is required under 15 U.S.C. § 1051 to, among other things, submit specimens of the mark and verify that it...more
Earlier this month, the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB) issued a precedential ruling that the term “Gruyere” for cheese is generic. In 2015, Swiss and French industry groups sought a certification mark for the term,...more
As a surprise to many, the Washington Redskins recently announced that it will be changing its 87-year old name. This decision comes after recent events that sparked nationwide discussions about race and caused various...more
Last month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) began an initiative to expedite the review of, and waive the fees related to, trademark applications for marks used to identify qualifying Covid-19 products...more
This week, the United States Supreme Court issued an important decision in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com affirming that “Booking.com” is a protectable trademark. This case stemmed from the United States...more
Something we may never have thought would take off – branded face masks – are now on the rise. With CDC recommendations and state/local orders recommending or even requiring employees (and sometimes even all citizens outside...more
Sometimes it’s back to basics. This time, the simple difference between trademarks, copyrights, and patents. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) provides guidance....more
As predicted, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has now extended its inquiry on the impact of artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies to copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property rights....more
Late last month, the United States Patent & Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued a Notice seeking comments as to whether Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) can be considered an inventor on a patent. Its questions “are designed to...more
Earlier this month, the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO) finalized and announced a rule requiring foreign trademark applicants to be represented by a United States licensed attorney when applying for a US...more
It’s old news by now, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that the immoral and scandalous trademark ban set forth in Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act is unconstitutional under the First Amendment because it disfavors...more
6/28/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
Earlier this month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) issued Examination Guide 1-19, intended to “clarify the procedure for examining marks for cannabis and cannabis-derived goods and for services...more
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in the Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC N/K/A Old Cold LLC case previously blogged about. The issue in that case was whether, when a trademark owner/licensor files...more
5/22/2019
/ Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Breach of Contract ,
Commercial Bankruptcy ,
Debtors ,
Exclusions ,
Executory Contracts ,
IP License ,
Mission Product Holdings Inc v Tempnology LLC ,
Rescission ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Section 365 ,
Split of Authority ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks ,
Trustees
Earlier this month, at the request of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals officially set a trademark registration requirement by making an earlier ruling precedential. That...more
Earlier this month, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (“CIPO”) published a new set of Trademark Regulations and announced that amendments to Canada’s trademark laws will go into effect on June 17, 2019. The CIPO’s...more
As I previously blogged about, there is a circuit split as to whether, when a trademark owner/licensor files for bankruptcy, the licensee of the trademark can legally continue use of the mark or whether the trademark...more