Supreme Court Decision Alert - January 21, 2015

Today, the Supreme Court issued two decisions, described below, of interest to the business community.

• Trademark Tacking—Question of Fact for Jury
• Federal Appellate Jurisdiction—Finality Of Order Dismissing One Among Many Consolidated Cases

Trademark Tacking—Question of Fact for Jury

Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank, No. 13-1211 (described in the June 23, 2014, Docket Report)

To have a protected interest in a trademark, a party must be the first to use it; such a party has "priority" and thus may exclude others from using the mark. To permit a party to update or modernize a mark without losing priority, courts have recognized a trademark "tacking" doctrine. If the later mark is so similar that it is "legally equivalent" to the earlier mark, the two marks may be "tacked," meaning that the later mark takes on the priority date of the earlier mark. Today, in Hana Financial, Inc. v. Hana Bank, No. 13-1211, the Supreme Court resolved a conflict among