The Supreme Court declined to review a Federal Circuit decision holding that a consumer and law professor lacked statutory standing to challenge the registration of RAPUNZEL as a trademark for dolls, leaving in place a strict rule requiring trademark challengers to show a direct commercial injury.
The Federal Circuit affirmed the TTAB dismissal of cigar maker Fuente Marketing Ltd.s opposition to a vape-pen design mark, holding that despite overlapping goods and channels, the distinct commercial impression of Vaporous Technologies stick-figure design mark defeated likelihood of confusion with
The Federal Circuit affirmed the TTAB’s refusal to register EVERYBODY VS. RACISM as a trademark for apparel, holding that the phrase functions as an informational, anti-racist message rather than as a source identifier — and confirming that widespread use of a phrase in an informational contex
The Federal Circuit reversed the TTAB’s cancellation of Great Concepts’ DANTANNA’S restaurant trademark, holding that filing a fraudulent Section 15 incontestability declaration does not give the Board authority to cancel the underlying registration — fraud after registration has l
The Federal Circuit reversed the TTAB’s cancellation of Coca-Cola’s U.S. registrations for THUMS UP and LIMCA, holding that a petitioner seeking cancellation under Lanham Act § 14(3) must show actual consumer confusion or misrepresentation affecting the U.S. market — competitive injury a
The Federal Circuit struck down the Lanham Act’s prohibition on registering marks that include a living person’s name without their consent as applied to “TRUMP TOO SMALL,” holding it was an unconstitutional restriction on speech critical of public figures — though the Supreme Court later reversed.
The Federal Circuit held that color marks on product packaging can be inherently distinctive and thus registrable as trademarks without proof of acquired distinctiveness, clarifying that multicolor product packaging marks are treated differently from product design marks.
The Federal Circuit held that a trademark registration creates a presumption of secondary meaning only as of the date of registration — not retroactively — requiring Converse to independently prove its Chuck Taylor trade dress had acquired distinctiveness before each infringer’s first infringing use
The Federal Circuit vacated the TTAB’s decision allowing Coca-Cola to register its ZERO trademarks without a disclaimer, holding the Board applied the wrong genericness standard and failed to properly assess the degree of descriptiveness when evaluating acquired distinctiveness.
An en banc Federal Circuit held that Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, which bars registration of ‘disparaging’ trademarks, violates the First Amendment — a landmark ruling that the Supreme Court affirmed in Matal v. Tam (2017), eliminating one of trademark law’s longest-standing res