This week, in Belmora LLC v. Bayer Consumer Care AG and
Bayer Healthcare LLC, Appeal No. 15-2335 (March 23, 2016), the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the Lanham
Act permits plaintiffs to bring false advertising, false
association, and trademark cancellation claims in the U.S., even if
those plaintiffs do not themselves own a U.S. trademark
registration or use the trademark in the U.S.
While this case is of interest to trademark practitioners
generally, we were especially excited to see this decision issue
because it is consistent with the outcome advocated by resident
Trademarkologist Jennifer Kovalcik, who prepared the amicus brief
on behalf of AIPLA.
The background facts and procedural details of the case are
enough to give anyone a headache, so we will cut to the chase:
Bayer Consumer Care AG and Bayer Healthcare LLC (collectively,
"Bayer") petitioned to cancel the U.S. registration for
FLANAX owned by Belmora, LLC ("Belmora"). Bayer
