In a recent decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that color marks can be inherently distinctive when used on product packaging. On April 8, 2020, the Federal Circuit...

The facts of the case as relevant here are relatively straightforward. The plaintiff, B&B Hardware ("B&B"), has since 1993 owned a federal registration for the mark SEALTIGHT for metal fasteners used in the aerospace industry.

On December 27, 2020, President Donald Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (H.R. 133), better known as the Omnibus Spending and COVID-19 Relief bill, into law.

By now, many of us have heard about changes to the Community Trade Mark (CTM) system entering into force on March 23, 2016.

Under a new procedure in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, trademark registration maintenance and renewal filings are randomly selected for audit when the goods or services list includes multiple items.

Section 505 of the Copyright Act permits a court to award "full costs." The general federal statute governing awards of costs specifies six categories of litigation expenses that qualify as "costs":

In deciding KuGou's invalidation action on the basis of KuGou's unregistered rights, the TRAB applied Articles 13.1 and 31 of the 2001 Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China.

However, the decision is not entirely positive for brand owners as the CJEU also held that bad faith can be a ground for invalidity where there is no bona fide intention to use a mark.

The U.S. Supreme Court resolved a longstanding split among the lower appellate (Circuit) courts, holding that a finding of willful trademark infringement is not required for an award of the...

e Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court's decision that Amazon.com, Inc. ("Amazon") was not liable for patent, copyright, and trademark infringement based on third-party sales of pillowcases on Amazon's website.

Two recent decisions by the EU General Court and the IP High Court of Japan demonstrate the very high bar that brand owners face in registering a mark consisting exclusively of a single color.

Today many brand-owners offer and promote their goods primarily via the internet, as social-media and digital marketplace platforms make it easier to reach customers around the globe.

The UK High Court recently heard the Sky v. Skykick case case again after it had earlier referred it to the Court of Justice of the European Union to decide the validity of Sky's registrations.

If the application is blocked by a prior mark, the cells" amended mark might be different enough to remove the blocking citation.

While the District Court specifically found the question of whether Apple's trade dress was functional to be a question of fact for the jury to decide, the Federal Circuit seemingly reached the exact opposite conclusion.

Having concluded that Ahmad made false, material representations of fact with the intent to deceive the USPTO, the Board sustained the fraud claim and refused to register the NATIONSTAR mark to Ahmad.

Prohibition of "Immoral or Scandalous" Marks Struck Down

Romania substantially amended its trademark legislation via Law 112/2020 which entered into force on July 13, 2020. Amendments to the Implementing Regulations are expected in September 2020.

As discussed in our February 2020 article, a new French trademark law was passed in November 2019 to meet the requirements of EU Directive 2015/2436 and streamline European trademark practice.

Defense Preclusion Must "Slim-Fit" into Either Collateral Estoppel or Res Judicata.