Like the previously invalidated bar on "disparaging" marks, the "immoral/scandalous" marks prohibition violated the First Amendment as a viewpoint-based restriction on free speech.
The Lanham Act’s…
The LEHMAN BROTHERS mark has been used continuously in the course of winding up the affairs of at least one Lehman Brothers affiliated company.
In a case involving competing applications to register…
The Ninth Circuit clarified that the first sale doctrine was not meant to be limited to purchasers who do no more than stock, display, and resell a producer's product.
In a trademark infringement…
The Madrid Protocol makes it possible to extend protections from an international registration to the United States. A United States District Court has just cautioned practitioners that they must…
The jury instruction improperly stated that the plaintiff was required to show willfulness for an award of profits.
Jury instructions given during a trial over whether a whale-watching company and…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) properly refused to register the mark “.SUCKS,” in standard characters and a stylized pixelated font, for failure to function as mark for the applicant’s…
Traditional limitations on trademarking a personal name give way to free speech interests when it comes to prominent public officials.
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board violated the First…
In the US an intent-to-use (“ITU”) trademark application may be filed by “a person who has a bona fide intention, under circumstances showing the good faith of such person, to use a trademark in…
A district court rightly enjoined a Wyoming trial lawyer training program from purporting to be the “true board” of a competing program from which it had recently split, the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
First Circuit affirmed a decision to dismiss a trademark suit brought by Motus LLC against CarData Consultants Inc. for a lack of personal jurisdiction, and because alleged trademark infringement was…
