The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
The panel said that the district court properly analyzed the strength-of-mark factor as a question of law. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has affirmed a district court judgment that held the strength-of-mark factor strongly favored PepsiCo, Inc. in a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by RISE canned coffee drink maker RiseandShine Corporation…
The plaintiff failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of its trademark violation suit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction against property management company Rampart/Wurth Holding filed by Rampart Resources, a land and real estate services company. The appellate court…
District court erred in dismissing infringement claims for failure to articulate trade dress with precision; unfair competition claims revived as federal claims reinstated. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated and remanded a federal district court’s dismissal of a motorcycle helmet maker’s trade dress infringement and unfair competition claims against H&H Sports…
In my previous articles—Trademark Squatting in Kazakhstan: From Russia with Love and its Part II—I reported cases where Russian companies attempted to register trademarks of well-known foreign brands in Kazakhstan. This post is now about the equivalent problem in the digital space, where cybersquatting has become a pressing issue: domain names identical or similar to…
In front of the Basic Civil Court Skopje, in Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia (“The Civil Court”) in 2022 a case has been initiated between two companies in the konditorei industry, one from Republic of Serbia (the plaintiff) and the other one from the Republic of North Macedonia (the defendant). The basis of the dispute…
The Federal Circuit affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or the “Board”) decision to cancel a mark based on priority of use, despite the Appellant’s argument that an declarations to show an assignment of a mark lack foundation and are based on hearsay. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed…
First Circuit affirmed denial of injunction, noting that confusion due to proximity of businesses and both trading off of the same historical legend “is not the type of confusion that trademark owners may prevent.” The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston has affirmed the denial of injunctive relief sought by the owner of a…
Selling company equity or stock shares does not constitute use of a trademark “in connection with goods or services” under the Lanham Act. In a ruling that clarifies the boundaries of federal trademark protection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has determined that companies cannot claim trademark infringement when competitors use similar…
Evidence that the defending firm’s ads confused consumers was “de minimis,” and online shoppers were savvy enough to distinguish between ads and organic search results. The sophisticated nature of online consumers, the lack of evidence of actual confusion, and other factors weighed against finding that there was a likelihood of confusion from a personal injury…
The ‘Hawk Tuah’ meme, popularised by Haliey (sic!) Welch, has prompted several third parties to apply for trademark protection in the EU. Can Welch, the ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’, challenge them? Bad Faith Well, as a first option, Welch could argue that these trademarks were filed in bad faith. In the NEYMAR case (T-795/17), the General…
