We’ve seen before how parties have a tendency to drop everything when they sense a chance to do business with the federal government. Authentic Apparel Group et al. v. United States was ostensibly a trademark dispute in the Court of Claims. After the court ruled against them, the plaintiffs appealed to the Federal Circuit. The…
In Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith, the Second Circuit sought to clarify our understanding of fair use, and especially transformative use of photos of the rockstar Prince, as interpreted (or copied) by Andy Warhol. The appellate court reversed a decision rendered by the Southern District of New York. The Andy…
In Ironhawk Technologies Inc. v. Dropbox, Inc., the Ninth Circuit considered two trademarks: SMARTSYNC by Ironhawk Technologies (the earlier-registered, “senior” mark) and SMART SYNC by storage space giant Dropbox (the later-filed,”junior” mark). The district court had granted Dropbox summary judgment on the grounds that, as a practical matter, Ironhawk was primarily selling to a highly…
Just when the world thought that we had moved past the peanut butter wars, another skirmish flared up in the Northern District of Ohio, East Division. In J.M. Smucker Company v. Hormel Food Corporation, the makers of JIF and SKIPPY peanut butter, respectively, jousted over trade dress. Smucker maintained that Hormel’s filing of a trademark…
In the case of Oasis Legal Finance Operating Company v. Chodes et al., the Northern District of Illinois issued an order for $100,000 in statutory damages, a transfer of domain, and a permanent injunction against the defendant. Months later the court awarded $3 million in attorney’s fees to the plaintiff. The road to this end…
In Belmora LLC v. Bayer Consumer Care AG, Bayer’s competitor filed in the USPTO an application for the trademark FLANAX, which Bayer had registered in Mexico but not in the States. In response to Bayer’s cease and desist demand, Belmora sued for a declaration that its registration was valid. Back in 2014, an enterprising competitor called Belmora…
47 of these 50 United States have legalized or decriminalized some form of marijuana — yet transporting it between two legal states is still a federal crime. So, given the rule of federal law, and as we’ve said in other contexts, the USPTO will not allow registration of any trademark for products containing, in virtually…
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) recently published a paper called Trademarks and Patents in China: The impact of non-market factors on filing trends and IP systems. It’s an interesting read that examines not only the deluge of applications within China, but also the USPTO’s flood of applications from China: There were 5,200…