Trademark case: Piano Factory Group Inc. v. Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH, USA

Panel confirms that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) need not find that a German company owned a US trademark rights to pursue a cancelation action.

In denying a California piano retailer’s petition for rehearing, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has expanded on the panel’s prior decision affirming a TTAB decision ordering cancelation of the retailer’s “Schiedmayer” mark on the ground of false association with a Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH, a German manufacturer of keyboard instruments. Substantial evidence of record sufficed to establish the retailer’s intent to create a false connection with the German brand name. The Federal Circuit also reiterated that the TTAB need not find that the German company owned U.S. trademark rights to bring a cancellation action (Piano Factory Group, Inc. v. Schiedmayer Celesta GmbH, October 19, 2021, per curiam).

Case date: 19 October 2021

Case number: No. 2020-1196

Court: United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.