Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Trademarks”
If you’re interested in some Thanksgiving trivia to share with your friends and family – trademark style – read on. I thought it would be fun to explore some famous branded food items we often seen around a typical American holiday table. Any guess as to which brand is the oldest? I’ll admit even I was surprised. Let’s have some …
On October 18, 2023, nearly two years after the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled in Chutter that reckless disregard satisfied the requisite intent for fraud at the USPTO in trademark matters, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) in a precedential split decision (Great Concepts, LLC v Chutter, Inc., 2023 USPQ2d XXXX (Fed. Cir. 2023)) reversed the …
As a nonprofit lawyer, understanding trademark protection is essential for effectively representing any mission-based organization in today’s marketplace. Every business is becoming more aware of the benefits of branding on its business, and the nonprofit and tax-exempt organization is no exception. Trademark protection is an area of intellectual property law that enables nonprofits to protect their names, logos, and slogans …
As lawyers we all know the importance of keeping our licenses current, but what we hate are all the boring continuing legal education webinars (CLE) we must endure to renew or bar cards. Often, these sessions are boring and irrelevant to our practice areas, so many of us feel it’s nothing more than checking a box. Truth be told, we, …
The Ohio State University (OSU) has been granted what many in our profession believe to be a silly, unenforceable trademark, having received a federal trademark registration for the word “THE” for various clothing items in the field of sports and college athletics. U.S. Registration Number 6763118 was issued to OSU on June 21, 2022. Does this mean that OSU can …
On Friday, December 10, 2021, the USPTO issued a final order for sanctions requiring Senzhen Huanyee Intellectual Property Co., Ltd. and its executive director Ms. Yusha Zhang (collectively “Respondents”) for filing 15,000 trademark applications in contravention of the U.S. Trademark Rules of Practice (“Rules”). The sanctions imposed include: (1) permanently precluding Respondents and their employees from submitting trademark-related documents at …
On September 30, 2021, in a precedential decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) clarified that “reckless disregard satisfies the requisite intent for fraud on the USPTO in trademark matters.” Chutter, Inc. v. Great Concepts, LLC, 2021 USPQ2d 1001 (TTAB 2021). This question was left open by the Federal Circuit in the seminal case of In re Bose. Since Bose, the number of …
The USPTO has been experiencing a surge in new trademark application filings since the height of the pandemic and this has caused delays in examining applications and issuing trademark registrations. There are many possible reasons for the surge in new trademark applications filings including a record number of small businesses being formed, changes to Amazon’s brand registry program, established businesses …
If you were The Coca-Cola Company (“TCCC”), how would you stop a trademark application for CONCEAL-CARRY REGISTERED HANDGUN (“CONCEAL-CARRY”) for clothing? The marks certainly don’t sound very similar. What if I told you the CONCEAL-CARRY application was filed in this stylization – would that change your mind? Of course, it would! But why? For starters, COCA-COLA owns a registered trademark …
Any client interested in protecting its intellectual property should apply for a trademark as quickly as possible to ensure the maximum amount of legal protection. The trademark does not need to already be in use in interstate commerce or even have an online presence in order to file a trademark application. In fact, under the United States Patent and Trademark …
