The jury instruction improperly stated that the plaintiff was required to show willfulness for an award of profits. Jury instructions given during a trial over whether a whale-watching company and its affiliates violated the Lanham Act by engaging in materially false or misleading advertising about their business failed to recite the correct legal standard, the…
In January 2020, Volkswagen (VW, the Opponent) filed an opposition against this trade mark application, alleging a likelihood of confusion with its earlier 3D shape registrations . The Applicant’s mark covered camping vehicles and camping equipment and VW’s earlier marks cover broad vehicle and furniture terms. The opposition was initially dismissed by the EUIPO…
By Janice Bereskin, Toba Cooper and Luca Manfredi. Barely five years after Canada’s “green rush”, interest in psychedelics for both medical and recreational use has increased dramatically. According to current estimates, the industry will grow at double-digit annual rates between now and 2027. Trademark practitioners expect a repeat of the cannabis trademark rush, but this…
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) properly refused to register the mark “.SUCKS,” in standard characters and a stylized pixelated font, for failure to function as mark for the applicant’s domain name registry operator services, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled. Substantial evidence supported the Board’s finding that consumers…
This case ABP Technology Ltd v Voyetra Turtle Beach, Inc. & Anor (Rev1) [2021] – EWHC 3096 (Ch) (19 November 2021) concerns two parties using highly similar/identical marks (STEALTH) on identical goods. This article discusses some key takeaway points arising from their dispute, as well as the tactics that the parties used. Both parties were involved…
Traditional limitations on trademarking a personal name give way to free speech interests when it comes to prominent public officials. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board violated the First Amendment rights of a trademark applicant when it denied registration to his t-shirt that disparaged former President Trump, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal…
In the US an intent-to-use (“ITU”) trademark application may be filed by “a person who has a bona fide intention, under circumstances showing the good faith of such person, to use a trademark in commerce” later. 15 U.S.C. § 1051.The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) has long maintained that to qualify for a…
A district court rightly enjoined a Wyoming trial lawyer training program from purporting to be the “true board” of a competing program from which it had recently split, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held. But the court of appeals, while upholding the injunction against the splinter academy, found that the…
First Circuit affirmed a decision to dismiss a trademark suit brought by Motus LLC against CarData Consultants Inc. for a lack of personal jurisdiction, and because alleged trademark infringement was not shown to be an intentional tort within the forum state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a…
Although the federal court stayed its action to allow a state court to determine the scope of certain licenses, the stay could not be reviewed on appeal because it did not effectively end the federal court litigation. A federal court’s decision to temporarily stay a trademark lawsuit in order to allow a state court to…
