The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a complaint seeking a declaration of trademark abandonment, finding that the plaintiff (the co-owner of an online business that sells to customers in...more
In the midst of an unprecedented and unsettling global pandemic, one constant remains: certain entrepreneurial-minded folks will not miss the opportunity to file trademark applications for new “brands” that align with the...more
Affirming a summary judgment in favor of defendant, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit determined that a copyright infringement lawsuit pertaining to the graphic design on a guitar made famous by a late heavy...more
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed that a plaintiff in a trademark infringement suit is not required to show that a defendant willfully infringed the plaintiff’s trademark as a...more
4/27/2020
/ § 1125(a) ,
§ 1125(c) ,
Appeals ,
Burden of Proof ,
Charge-Filing Preconditions ,
Compensatory Awards ,
Dilution ,
Lanham Act ,
Lost Profits ,
Remand ,
Remedies ,
Romag Fasteners v Fossil ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademark Litigation ,
Trademarks ,
Vacated ,
Willful Infringement
Reviewing a decision from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the Board’s refusal to register a trademark consisting of a gradient...more
Relying on Supreme Court precedent, the Federal Circuit overturned the USPTO’s refusal to register a multi-color trademark for product packaging, holding that color marks can be inherently distinctive depending upon the...more
Affirming a district court’s summary judgment in favor of various defendants, including the vocal music director and parent volunteers at Burbank High School (whose competitive show choirs reportedly inspired the television...more
A unanimous decision from the Supreme Court of the United States in Allen v. Cooper affirmed a previous ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and held that states cannot be sued for copyright infringement,...more
4/4/2020
/ Abrogation ,
Allen v Cooper ,
Authors ,
Certiorari ,
Congressional Intent ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act ,
Eleventh Amendment ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
SCOTUS ,
Sovereign Immunity
Ruling en banc, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reinstated a 2016 jury verdict, finding that the rock band Led Zeppelin and the opening notes of its hit song “Stairway to Heaven” did not infringe the 1967 song...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that plaintiffs-appellees’ temporary artwork had achieved appropriate stature to be protected by the rarely invoked Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA), and that an...more
Trademark jurisprudence in 2019 may be best summarized in two words: questions and answers. Decisions handed down at the district court level have teed up key questions that are poised to be answered by the United States...more
Concluding that a terminated exclusive trademark licensee failed to establish the elements required to impose a preliminary injunction, the US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of a...more
1/3/2020
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Contract ,
Exclusive Licenses ,
Injunctions ,
Irreparable Harm ,
License Agreements ,
Licensees ,
Likelihood of Success ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Reversal ,
Termination ,
Trademark Licenses ,
Trademarks
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction forbidding professional networking platform LinkedIn from denying data analytics company hiQ access to publicly available LinkedIn profiles. HiQ...more
11/12/2019
/ Analytics ,
Appeals ,
Cease and Desist ,
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) ,
Data Collection ,
Data Use Policies ,
Declaratory Judgments ,
DMCA ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Irreparable Harm ,
Likelihood of Success ,
LinkedIn ,
Penal Code ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Public Information ,
Public Interest ,
Remand ,
Trespass ,
Web Scraping
Applying the Supreme Court of the United States’ 2017 decision in Star Athletica v. Varsity Brands regarding the copyrightability of non-utilitarian sculptural design features (IP Update, Vol. 20, No. 4), the US Court of...more
10/16/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyrightable Subject Matter ,
First Impression ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Star Athletica v Varsity Brands ,
The Copyright Act ,
Trade Dress ,
Unfair Competition
Addressing § 504(c)(1) of the US Copyright Act, which permits an award of statutory damages in lieu of actual damages for copyright infringement, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit considered a question of first...more
In a 6–3 opinion, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed a 2017 US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision holding the ban on registration of immoral or scandalous trademarks under the Lanham Act to be an...more
8/5/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s dismissal of claims of copyright infringement, violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and breach of...more
In finding a fair use defense and no “likelihood of confusion” in a cosmetics trademark infringement dispute, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit also considered, as an issue of first impression, whether the Seventh...more
7/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Cosmetics ,
Disgorgement ,
Fair Use ,
Jury Trial ,
Lanham Act ,
Likelihood of Confusion ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Seventh Amendment ,
Statutory Damages ,
Trademark Infringement ,
Trademarks ,
Unfair Competition
A 6-3 opinion from the Supreme Court of the United States in Iancu v. Brunetti affirmed a Federal Circuit 2017 decision. Both rulings found the ban on the registration of immoral or scandalous trademarks under the Lanham Act...more
6/27/2019
/ Appeals ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Iancu v. Brunetti ,
Lanham Act ,
Reaffirmation ,
Reversal ,
Scandalous/Immoral Marks ,
SCOTUS ,
Trademark Registration ,
Trademarks ,
USPTO ,
Viewpoint Discrimination
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit examined issues of vicarious and contributory infringement—along with willfulness—in connection with a copyright infringement case involving a real estate website that featured...more
6/10/2019
/ Cease and Desist ,
Contributory Infringement ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Evidence ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Jury Verdicts ,
Photographs ,
Remand ,
Vendors ,
Vicarious Liability ,
Websites ,
Willful Infringement
Affirming the district court’s summary judgment ruling on the protectability of the trademark BOOKING.COM, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit weighed in on the somewhat controversial issue of the genericness of a...more
Reviewing a decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded the TTAB’s affirmation of an examining attorney’s refusal to register the trademark...more
Holding that reproduction of a digital file for purposes of resale does not fall under the “first sale” doctrine of the Copyright Act, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of...more
2/11/2019
/ Appeals ,
Copyright ,
Copyright Infringement ,
Copyright Litigation ,
Copyright Ownership ,
Damages ,
Digital Media ,
Fair Use ,
Final Judgment ,
First Sale Doctrine ,
Intellectual Property Protection ,
Music Industry ,
Permanent Injunctions ,
Right to Control ,
Summary Judgment ,
The Copyright Act
In a fight involving sales of mattresses and alleged trash talking pertaining to those mattresses, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit joined the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth and Federal Circuits in holding...more
In a dispute alleging that legendary rock band Led Zeppelin copied “Stairway to Heaven” from a song by a different band, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated in part a judgment in favor of Led Zeppelin,...more