Trading card pioneer Topps comes out on top in trademark
dispute
On April 20, 2015 Scott Slavick's article, "Stretched
to its limit, Panini strikes out at TTAB," was published on
InsideCounsel.
Why Topps Came Out on Top: Slavick Gives Inside Pitch
If you ever traded baseball cards, a recent decision by the TTAB
could hit close to home, says Brinks' Scott Slavick in his
latest piece on InsideCounsel.com. In The Topps Co., Inc. v.
Panini Amer., Inc., the TTAB sustained an opposition filed by
Topps against sports trading card manufacturer Panini's
application to register the word limited for use in connection with
its own cards.
Panini's mark was published because the Examiner had
accepted the company's declaration that it had used the mark
substantially exclusively and continuously for the past five years
and had sold $30+ million of cards under the mark. But Panini's
argument for the term's acquired distinctiveness did not
prevail at the TTAB which recognized
