You may be able to assert "use analogous to trademark use" to claim priority over someone else who actually made technical use of a confusingly similar trademark or service mark before you did.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), in a precedential decision of first impression, decided that a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company, applying in the U.S. to register CANDYVERSE for soft drinks...

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that VIP Products' "Bad Spaniels" squeaky dog toy parody of the Jack Daniel's whiskey bottle was not shielded from a claim of trademark...

Choosing a trademark with an appealing connotation normally is desirable. But if the mark conveys a plausible but false idea about some aspect of the goods or services...

Recording artist Lizzo won a 2023 Grammy for About Damn Time as Record of the Year. Four days earlier, her company Lizzo LLC also won an appeal of a refusal to register, for failure...

Brands are delighted to receive an award or a seal of approval. Marketing those trophies requires careful consideration of intellectual property and advertising law principles.

Tempting as it may be to adopt a trademark that is the common name for your product, that may not be the best idea because you cannot prevent others from using a word, or a combination of words...

In honor of Jewish-American Heritage Month, we highlight the life of Benjamin Kaplan (1911–2010), a distinguished Jewish-American...

A non-U.S. applicant seeking to register a mark in the U.S. without having used it in U.S. commerce normally should take affirmative steps to establish its bona fide intent to use its mark just like a domestic ...

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued new supplemental guidance that fundamentally changes how design patent applications for graphical user interfaces, computer icons, and emerging technologies like virtual...

When unrelated parties seek to register and make simultaneous use of similar marks that face a possible finding of a likelihood of consumer confusion...

To be registrable as a trademark on the U.S. Principal Register, the trademark must relate to "goods in trade" sold or transported in commerce for use by others as distinguished from being merely...

If an element of a composite mark does not present a separate and distinct commercial impression, an application to register that element is said to be a "mutilation" of the mark and cannot be separately registered.

Can your application to register an updated version of your previously registered mark be accepted despite a third party's coexisting similar registered mark?

In 2020, the spread of Covid-19 gave rise to increased e-commerce and influencer marketing. While influencers may bring your brand viral attention, the strategy also may expose you to legal risk.

Since the enactment of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act in 2011, only a competitor or the federal government can assert a claim for false patent marking under the Patent Act. This claim requires a showing.

Java SE is a computer program that uses the popular Java computer programming language that was originally developed by Sun Microsystems.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently affirmed that a specific shade of bright green (Pantone 2297C) cannot be registered as a trademark for construction tripod legs due to functionality concerns. The decision highlights the complex interplay between color marks, safety features, and competitive disadvantage in trademark law, examining how high-visibility colors serve essential purposes beyond source identification.

The first user of a mark for particular goods or services has superior rights against a subsequent user of the same or similar mark for any goods or services that purchasers might reasonably expect to be...

A federal appeals court has reversed a lower court's dilution ruling in the decade-long trademark dispute between Jack Daniel's whiskey and VIP's "Bad Spaniels" parody dog toy. The Ninth Circuit held that Jack Daniel's failed to prove the humorous dog toy actually tarnished its famous brand, despite creating a mental association with the whiskey marks.