The body of law drawn from the precedents set by earlier decisions.
The district court failed to analyze the appropriate preliminary injunction factors on a motion to enforce a settlement agreement with factual disputes. In a trademark dispute over the “GTRACING” mark for video game chairs between two Asian-centered businesses, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has lifted an injunction on a motion to…
This post is the first of four looking at the decision of Smith J in Lidl & another v Tesco & another [2023] EWHC 873 (Ch). It will focus on the s.10(3) trade mark infringement elements of the judgment and the potential impact this may have for rights holders. The Court’s findings: of copyright infringement…
The court found that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision was supported by substantial evidence. A real estate brokerage’s proposed mark was likely to be confused with a prior registration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has held. The TTAB’s prior analysis as to each of the DuPont factors was supported by…
A long legal battle over the status of “the greatest of all cheeses,” comes to an apparent end. A federal court in Virginia correctly relied on standards of identity written by the Food and Drug Administration to conclude that the word GRUYERE was not entitled to geographical trademark protection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
Like many companies in the fashion industry, Christian Louboutin did not seek design patent protection for its shoe designs in Brazil. The red sole trademark application was filed in 2009 in Brazil, at a time when position trademarks were not regulated by the Brazilian trademark law. The regulation of the Brazilian PTO on position trademarks…
The Chinese company acted with the requisite bad faith under the ACPA when it bought and re-registered the domain name, which was identical to several registered trademarks owned by the insurance and financial services giant. A Chinese Internet company that distributes financial and economic information to Chinese consumers had the bad faith intent to profit…
District court failed to draw inferences in favor of nonmoving party in finding no likelihood of confusion. The federal district court in Miami erred in awarding summary judgment for a title insurance company regarding its use of the mark ‘FOREMOST,’ the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has held. The Eleventh Circuit found…
“To grant trade-dress protection for Pocket Plus,” the court said, “would be to hand it a monopoly over the ‘best’ portable-pouch design,” which trademark law precludes. In a trade-dress infringement suit by portable pouch maker Pocket Plus against its direct competitor Running Buddy, an Iowa district court’s grant of summary judgment to Running Buddy was…
A district court was too hasty in rejecting the safe distance rule. A federal district court in Detroit must reconsider its decision to allow the Indian maker of an off-road vehicle to release a redesigned product that ostensibly did not infringe the trade dress of the venerable Jeep brand, the U.S. Court of Appeals for…
The district court erred in considering the failure to produce evidence of actual confusion at this preliminary stage, but the error did not affect the outcome. The U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware correctly denied a preliminary injunction after it concluded that the trademark holder failed to provide evidence of irreparable harm in the absence…
