India’s Union Cabinet approves accession to Madrid Protocol Today, India’s Union Cabinet approved India’s accession to the Madrid Protocol, the international treaty relating to registration of trademarks. The next step will be introduction of Bill in India’s Parliament to finalize the accession and to amend India’s trademark laws to include the requirements of the Madrid Protocol. The Madrid Protocol permits trademark applicants to […] Continue Reading →
Seventh Circuit: single sale insufficient use in commerce to support trademark registration In Custom Vehicles, Inc. v. Forest River, Inc., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a trademark plaintiff did not engage in sufficient use in commerce to support trademark rights. Even worse for the plaintiff, the court held that even if there were sufficient use, the mark at issue was descriptive, and there was […] Continue Reading →
TTAB now allows citation of nonprecedential opinions In a notice posted in the USPTO Official Gazette yesterday, the TTAB has changed its rules, now allowing citation to TTAB decisions designated non-precedential. Under the former rule, any non-precedential decisions cited before the TTAB were disregarded. Now, while only opinions designated as precedential are binding on the TTAB, a non-precedential opinion “may be cited […] Continue Reading →
Cisco’s General Counsel blogs about dispute with Apple over iPhone trademark In an interesting PR move, Mark Chandler, Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Cisco Systems, has posted an informative description of the Apple-Cisco iPhone trademark lawsuit on one of Cisco's blogs. Commentary on the blog, while mixed, appears to be predominantly positive, particularly by those who did not understand Cisco's legal position when the […] Continue Reading →
Ketchup makers battle over rights to “red zone” Ketchup giant Heinz and rival ketchup maker Red Gold are embroiled in a trademark dispute over the right to use “Red Zone” in promotions associated with football games. In football, the red zone is the common name of the area between the 20-yard line and the end zone, and a team’s offense is often measured […] Continue Reading →
University of Texas sues over use of “sawed-off” horns logo The University of Texas has sued Aggieland Outfitters, a retailer in College Station, Texas (home of rival university Texas A&M) over its use of a modified version of the Texas Longhorns logo. The original logo and the modified version appear below: The retailer has been selling merchandise bearing the "sawed off" logo since 1997, but […] Continue Reading →
Trademark “use in commerce” must be lawful to build trademark rights When is a use in commerce not sufficient to build trademark rights? When that use is unlawful. The Ninth Circuit, in a dispute between two manufacturers of antioxidants made from olive extract, held in an issue of first impression in that circuit that unlawful use in commerce cannot support federal trademark rights. This decision agrees […] Continue Reading →
Starbucks loses Korean appeal, Starpreya can continue to use name there The Korean Supreme Court today denied an appeal by Starbucks to cancel a rival's trademark there. Specifically, the Court noted that Starbucks was not well-known in Korea when the rival coffee provider (who uses a similar logo) registered its trademark. MVS previously blogged about the appeal here. This case, along with the ongoing saga between […] Continue Reading →
“Trademark” as a trademark? Can the word "trademark" be a trademark itself? Breckenridge Brewery sells Trademark Pale Ale, which raises this interesting issue. Images of Breckenridge's packaging can be seen below: Under trademark law, there is no restriction on use of "trademark" as a trademark, as long as it meets the statutory requirements. For example, a search of USPTO […] Continue Reading →
2006 TTAB year in review John Welch at The TTABlog has compiled a list of all citable opinions of the TTAB in 2006 organized by the substantive legal issue in each decision. This is a useful tool when looking for the most recent TTAB case law on a particular issue. The 57 citable decisions in 2006 are almost double the […] Continue Reading →