Employment Law Now VIII-150 - The FTC Noncompete Rule is Dead: What Now?
Balch’s Decision Dive: Texas Trial Court Struck Down the FTC’s Noncompete Rule
5 Key Takeaways | Recent Developments in United States Trademark and Unfair Competition Law
The FTC Issued a New Rule to Ban All New Noncompete Agreements
3 Key Takeaways | New York State Bar Association IP Section Annual Meeting
Trade Secret Two-Step: Part 2
Trade Secret Two-Step: Part 1
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Trending Now: An IP Podcast - False and Misleading Advertising, Label Review
JONES DAY TALKS®: 75 Years of the Lanham Act and Changes in U.S. Trademark Law
Wayfarers Chapel, a Rancho Palos Verdes church, sued Malibu wedding chapel Calamigos Ranch on trademark and trade dress infringement grounds, as well as unfair competition. Interestingly, Wayfarers Chapel alleged in their...more
NS Brands Ltd. (NatureSweet) recently filed its third lawsuit against Mastronardi Product Ltd. and Mastronardi Product USA Inc. (Angel Sweet) in just over 10 years, alleging unfair competition and trademark and trade dress...more
Like the United States, China offers protection for 2D and 3D designs of products and packaging, which is often known by U.S. consumers and practitioners as “trade dress.” This four-part miniseries of posts provides a...more
Addressing the functionality of colors in design marks, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the district court’s entry of judgment for a trademark owner on its unfair competition and trademark claims,...more
In Ezaki Glico Kabushiki Kaisha v. Lotte International America Corp., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit considered a trade dress infringement dispute between two confectioners. Ezaki Glico (“Ezaki”), a Japanese...more
MUNCHKIN, INC. V. LUV N’ CARE LTD - Before Dyk, Taranto, and Chen. Appeal from the Central District of California. Summary: when a litigant seeks fees for an exceptional case based on issues that were not fully...more
Addressing issues of design patent infringement, copyright infringement, trade dress infringement and unfair competition, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment...more
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
The U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit went bananas for copyright protection, ruling that a banana costume was copyrightable in a lawsuit filed by the maker of a competing costume....more
In Silvertop Associates, Inc. v. Kangaroo Manufacturing, Inc., the Third Circuit applied the two-part test set forth in the Supreme Court’s decision in Star Athletica, L.L.C. v. Varsity Brands, Inc., and held that a full-body...more
On January 30, 2019, the luxury jewelry suppliers Van Cleef & Arpels filed suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Nice Ice Fine Jewelers, LLC (“Defendant”). Van Cleef & Arpels’...more
On July 18, 2018 the well-known luxury goods company, Cartier International AG and Cartier, a division of Richemont North America Inc. (collectively, “Cartier” or “Plaintiffs”) filed suit in the United States District Court...more
China’s Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) has recently published its list of the “top 10 significant IP cases” for 2017, which it has done yearly since 2007. ...more
The women’s hosiery powerhouse, Spanx, is being sued for allegedly copying designs of a small shapewear company (R and A Synergy, LLC, v. Spanx, Inc., (C.D. Cal. 2017)). In the Complaint filed on December 21, 2017 in the...more
In a meaty decision involving the intersection of restrictive covenant and franchise law, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio recently denied a request by D.P. Dough Franchising, LLC (“D.P....more
The ITC issued an Opinion finding a violation of Section 337 and issuing a general exclusion order and cease and desist orders. Of note, the Commission clarified that the “domestic industry” for unregistered trade dress need...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit declined to apply an arbitration provision to a dispute where the asserted claims were not within the scope of the contract containing the arbitration provision. Roof N Box,...more
As discussed in our previous blog post Puma Treads New Territory Hitting Forever 21 with Copyright Allegations after the Supreme Court’s Star Athletica Decision, Puma sued Forever 21 for design patent infringement, trade...more
Airwair, the owner of the Dr. Martens brand, recently launched a series of lawsuits in the Northern District of California to enforce the trade dress of its “iconic boots and shoes.” One lawsuit was filed in October against...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court decision granting summary judgment to a defendant that its use of digital files did not infringe plaintiff’s trademark or trade dress for its CD-Gs...more
Legalized Drug Use Impacts the Food and Beverage Industry - In the November 2016 general election, voters in Arkansas, Florida and North Dakota amended their state constitutions to authorize the use of marijuana for...more
As the first-filed paper in nearly any litigation, the complaint is typically subject to rigorous scrutiny from the named defendant to identify any flaws that may dispatch the case via a motion to dismiss. A plaintiff in the...more
Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined a court had jurisdiction to decide a trademark lawsuit filed by a U.S. grocery store against a Canadian reseller where the products at issue were only...more
On June 18, 2014, Python Safety, Inc. (“Python”), of Woodstock, GA filed a complaint against Ty-Flot, Inc. (“Ty-Flot”), of Manchester, NH, alleging federal trade dress infringement and unfair competition, infringement of US...more
On April 1, 2014, Select Management Resources, LLC of Alpharetta, Georgia (“Select”) filed a complaint against Title Credit Acceptance, LLC of Duluth, Georgia (“Title”) alleging state and federal trademark and trade dress...more