The Trademark Trial and Appeals Board (TTAB) recently had one of its decisions reversed by the DC Circuit. Bureau National Interprofessionnel du Cognac [“Cognac Institute”] v. Cologne and Cogac Entertainment centered on the plaintiff’s opposition to the defendant’s mark COLOGNE AND COGNAC ENTERTAINMENT. Certification marks have the same protections as trademarks. The opposers, the Cognac…
Rolex Watch v. BeckerTime was a case out of the Fifth Circuit that concerned the difference between the restoration and the customization of Rolex watches. Although the District Court for the Northern District of Texas had ruled in favor of Rolex, Rolex appealed, hoping to get more damages. BeckerTime is a company in the business…
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…
Cervejaria Petropolis SA v. Ambev S.A. comes our way from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C., via the TTAB. In this case, Ambev had applied to the USPTO for registration of the mark FUSION, but was barred by the registration of the appellant, Cervejaria Petropolis (CP) for the same mark. CP had inherited the FUSION…
The Southern District of New York recently resolved yet another case of models suing “gentlemen’s” clubs for various intellectual property claims. Gibson et al. v. SCE Group, Inc. et al. was brought by the same attorneys who initiated similar suits in 2016. In this case, 20 models brought an action against two strip clubs for using photos of…
A recent, precedential decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) examined the difference between a source identifier, and informational text that just happens to appear close to a logo. In Re TracFone, Inc. concerned cellular provider TracFone’s failed application for the mark UNLIMITED CARRYOVER as a trademark on the Principal Register. The question before the…
On May 2, 2019, the USPTO published an Examination of Marks for Cannabis and Cannabis-Related Goods and Services (which I’ll call the “CBD Guidelines”). The gist of it was that any application for a trademark on a cannabis-based product filed before December 20, 2018 (when the new Farm Bill was enacted), will be rejected. By…
The 2018 Farm Bill (formally The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018) made news for allowing the cultivation of hemp. Hemp is, of course, famous for being the working member of the cannabis family, while marijuana is more like the free-spirited snowboarder. As far as the government is concerned, the hemp-marijuana continuum is measured by the amount…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or TTAB, issued an interesting ruling at the end of 2018. The TTAB is in effect the forum providing review of decisions rendered by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark examining attorneys. The case in question is Rebecca Curtin v. United Trademark Holding Inc (“UTH”). UTH filed a trademark…
A case originating in the Southern District of Florida called Allied Lonestar v. Lonestar Distillery recently found itself before the Fifth Circuit. The dispute was over the alleged trademark abandonment of Allied’s Cowboy Little Barrel Whiskey, and whether Lonestar subsidiary Garrison Brothers infringed by selling its Cowboy Bourbon. The evidence Allied presented as proof (pun unintended) of using the mark…