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AIR and 4IR were similar in appearance because the number 4 may be presented in a variety of manners that closely approximate the letter A.

The Board recently affirmed that reckless disregard satisfies the requisite intent for fraud on the USPTO in trademark matters, citing Chutter.

in connection with “Components for air conditioning and cooling systems, namely, evaporative air coolers,” . . . . "the identification of goods covers evaporative air coolers that are components of air cooling systems" rather than "component parts for evaporative air coolers."

Many states have now passed laws prohibiting bad faith assertions of patent infringement. One example is Colorado Revised Statute 6-12-102, titled "Concerning Prohibited Communications Regarding Patents." Some examples of bad faith include falsely saying that litigation has already been filed; or...

In Appliance Liquidation Outlet LLC v. Axis Supply Corp., No. 23-50413, — F.4th — (5th Cir. June 21, 2024), the Fifth Circuit affirmed that competitor's use of “Appliance Liquidation” infringed Plaintiff ALO's common law trademark for “Appliance Liquidation Outlet” in San Antonio. Although “Appli...

Thomas P. Howard LLC is proud to announce that the June/July 2024 issue of Landslide magazine, a publication of the American Bar Association, includes an article written by James Juo. The article, "One-Bite Rule for Rogers After Bad Spaniels," discusses the Rogers test with respect to the title ...

"music lessons and live musical performances are inherently related and complementary services as music students showcase what they have learned in recitals, i.e., live musical performances."

knowledge of the existence of certain documents and ‘using' that knowledge to seek disclosure of those documents outside of the litigation did not constitute use of the documents or their contents

Section 2(c), 15 U.S.C. § 1052(c), bars the registration of a mark that “[c]onsists of or comprises a name . . . identifying a particular living individual except by his written consent.”  Steve Elster filed a trademark application to register TRUMP TOO SMALL for “shirts,” which the USPTO refuse...

A meme is an amusing or interesting item (such as a picture or video, often captioned) that is spread widely online especially through social media. See Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (accessed May 19, 2024). One well-known meme is “Success Kid” which is a photo that Laney Griner took of her...

A survey offered in litigation before the Board is not a freestanding piece of evidence, but instead is offered as the basis for expert opinion testimony.

In LKQ Corp. v. GM Global Tech. Operations LLC, No. 21-2348, (Fed. Cir. May 21, 2024) (en banc), the Federal Circuit replaced the Rosen-Durling test with a more flexible test. The USPTO has since issued a memorandum to provide guidance to examiners for design patent applications. The memo states...

If a defendant's offer of judgment expressly disclaims an admission of liability and the plaintiff accepts that offer, the Court's judgment does not constitute a finding of or an admission of liability against the defendant.

A use-based trademark registration could be void if the trademark was not used for the identified services prior to the application filing date.

False advertising may arise from claims regarding the recyclability of a product.

The name of a musical group is often the subject of trademark ownership disputes.

“UNFORGETTABLE-formative marks are both conceptually and commercially weak for travel agency services and, therefore, are entitled to a narrow scope of protection.”

The words “unrivaled luxury” had “no unique or incongruous meaning in relation to cruise ship services other than as a superlative,”

Very little proof of actual confusion is required when customer purchases were actually swayed; but more proof of actual confusion is required when the confusion did not or cannot sway purchases

Federal Circuit re-designated In re GO & Associates, LLC, No. 2022-1961, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. Nov. 14, 2023) as precedential, as requested by the USPTO under Fed. Cir. R. 32.1(e)

Does a business or organization-related social media account belong to the business entity or to the individual who created it? The Second Circuit has held that this novel legal question should be answered based on whether the person who created the social media account used her personal informat...

GS Holistic manufactures and distributes a glass gravity infuser under the brand name Stündenglass, the other is a line of portable hand-held vaporizers under the G Pen brand. In July and August of 2023, GS Holistic filed more than 50 nearly identical small-dollar trademark infringement cases aga...

A trademark can be a phrase, word, design, symbol, or combination of all of these, that allows people to identify your services or goods. Trademarks are how customers can recognize you and distinguish you as separate from competitors, in addition to providing you with legal protection for your br...

When creating a new derivative work based on another work, there must be “sufficient nontrivial expressive variation” in the new work in question, so as “to make it distinguishable from [an] underlying work in some meaningful way.” Schrock v. Learning Curve Int'l, Inc., 586 F.3d 513, 521 (7th Cir...

The preamble of a patent claim typically is not given much weight, but that is not always the case. In Pacific BioSciences of California, Inc.  v. Personal Genomics Taiwan, Inc., No. 22-1410, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. Jan. 9, 2023), the preamble for the claims in U.S. Patent No. 7767441 included the p...