A DETAILED OVERVIEW OF THE SUPPLEMENTAL REGISTER   Introduction The Supplemental Register is a lesser-known yet crucial component of the U.S. trademark system. It serves as a secondary register, offering certain benefits to trademarks that may not qualify for the Principal Register. Understanding the Supplemental Register is essential for businesses, legal practitioners, and brand owners who seek to protect their trademarks, especially those marks that are descriptive or lack distinctiveness at the time of application.…

CO-OWNERSHIP OF TRADEMARKS: LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND CHALLENGES   Co-ownership of trademarks in the United States presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities. Trademarks, which serve as symbols of a company’s brand identity, are often considered the most valuable assets a business can own. When more than one party shares ownership of a trademark, the legal landscape becomes significantly more complex. Understanding the implications, benefits, and potential pitfalls of co-owning a trademark is crucial for…

ESSENTIAL EVIDENCE ELEMENTS IN TTAB CASES   Introduction   The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is a pivotal administrative tribunal within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), tasked with adjudicating various trademark-related disputes. These disputes typically involve opposition to the registration of trademarks, petitions to cancel registered marks, and appeals concerning the refusal of trademark applications. Given the crucial role that trademarks play in protecting brand identity and ensuring market differentiation, the…

SIGNIFICANT TTAB RULING: EFFECTS ON TRADEMARK LAW AND CONSEQUENCES FOR APPLICANTS AND REGISTRANTS   Introduction The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) plays a critical role in the U.S. trademark system, serving as the forum for the resolution of disputes concerning the registration of trademarks. While the TTAB’s decisions are often highly specialized, certain landmark rulings have far-reaching implications, reshaping the landscape of trademark law and influencing how trademarks are protected and enforced in the…

INTRODUCTION TO TRADEMARK OPPOSITION BEFORE THE TTAB The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides a mechanism for interested parties to oppose the registration of a trademark through proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB). The TTAB is an administrative body responsible for adjudicating disputes related to trademark applications and registrations, including oppositions, cancellations, and concurrent use proceedings. Trademark opposition is a critical part of maintaining the integrity of the trademark register,…

THE ESSENTIAL CONCEPT BEHIND TRADEMARK OPPOSITIONS When opposing a trademark application, several key grounds can be cited to challenge the registration. One of the most common reasons is the likelihood of confusion, which occurs when the proposed trademark is too similar to an existing one, potentially misleading consumers about the origin of goods or services. Other grounds include descriptiveness, where the mark merely describes the product or service, and lack of distinctiveness, meaning the trademark…

Appeals of TTAB Decisions (an overview) The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative body within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that handles cases involving trademark registration. When the TTAB makes a decision, the involved parties may have the option to appeal that decision if they disagree with the outcome. Here’s an overview of the process and options available for appealing TTAB decisions: TTAB Decisions Overview The TTAB issues decisions on…

What is motion for summary judgment in Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)? Motion for summary judgment in Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) A motion for summary judgment in a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) proceeding is a formal request made by one party asking the Board to decide the case, or specific issues within the case, without going to trial. The party filing the motion argues that there are no genuine disputes…

TRADEMARK TRIAL APPEAL BOARD (TTAB) – OVERVIEW The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It is responsible for adjudicating disputes related to trademark applications and registrations. The TTAB operates under the authority of the USPTO and handles several types of proceedings, including: Trademark Opposition Proceedings: These occur when a party opposes the registration of a trademark. The opposing party may believe that…

Complete Guide to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) Overview The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) is an administrative body within the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). It handles specific types of cases involving trademarks, primarily focusing on the legal issues surrounding the registration of trademarks. The TTAB’s primary functions include adjudicating appeals of trademark registration refusals, and resolving oppositions to the registration of trademarks and petitions to cancel registrations of…

Understanding Trade Dress and Product Design Protection in the Context of Trademark Law Trade dress refers to the visual appearance of a product or its packaging that signifies the source of the product to consumers. In the context of protecting packaging designs, trade dress includes the overall look and feel of the packaging, which can encompass features such as size, shape, color, texture, graphics, and even particular sales techniques. Key Aspects of Trade Dress: Source…

Understanding the TTAB Discovery Conference and Why It Matters During a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) discovery conference, the parties involved typically discuss various aspects related to the discovery process in the trademark dispute. The purpose of the conference is to streamline the discovery process, resolve any disputes regarding discovery, and establish guidelines for conducting discovery efficiently. Here are some key points that may be discussed during a TTAB discovery conference: Scope of Discovery:…

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

Use in Commerce is defined in Section 45 of the Trademark Act as a “Bona Fide Use of a trademark in the ordinary course of trade.” What is “Bona Fide Use”? Keep Reading to Find Out

A Step-by-Step Guide to filing a Canadian Trademark Application with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO), from beginning to end. Our trademark attorneys are here to help.

A trademark opposition proceeding can be commenced by anyone with a legitimate interest in the registration of a pending trademark. A trademark opposition lawyer can help.

Music producers generally elicit and capture artists’ performances in the recording studio to produce artistically, commercially, and technically acceptable master recordings. Often times, the artist-producer relationship is laid back and casual due to the nature of the music industry and the people therein. Some artists and producers avoid explicitly discussing the details of their relationship as it can negatively influence the workflow and creative atmosphere when there is too much business and money talk. Nevertheless,…

When someone “steals” your song, it is most often a matter of copyright infringement. Copyright owners have federal statutory rights as outlined by the United States Copyright Act. In short, copyright owners have exclusive rights in their copyrighted works including the right of reproduction, distribution, public display and performance, and the right to prepare derivative works. This means only the copyright owner, such as a musician or artist, can reproduce, distribute or perform their original…

Have you ever been to a musical performance and thought to yourself, “What a fun job! I wish I could play rock guitar for a living.” Did you make music with your high school buddies in your garage or your basement? Did you or your friends’ bands eventually fall apart? While some bands come and go, others grow to become professional musicians and legendary icons, selling thousands of dollars in branded merchandise, protecting and licensing…

nude pictures of angie tyleruncensored With the growing popularity of hip-hop music and remix culture, sampling has become common practice among a wide variety of artists and producers looking to associate with those who have come before them. Sampling is the act of integrating sounds embodied in a pre-existing sound recording into a new musical work. As a matter of copyright law, when an artist “samples” another artist’s music, they must receive permission from the…

But really, how to value your Startup? Imagine a situation in which an investor says that he’ll give you $30 million for 20 percent of your company. However, you believe your startup to be currently valued at less than $150 million. What is the investor really offering you?   Pre and Post Money Valuation Investors commonly speak in terms of post-money valuation, which refers to the value of the company after a financing event. When…

Term sheets are documents (often) drafted by attorneys, which contain the key provisions that startups and investors agree to when striking a deal. Fundamentally, term sheets stipulate the financial obligations of each party and outline the conditions of the sale of stock to investors or the sale and purchase of a company. Critically, term sheets allow the parties to identify or predict any issues that may arise before the (potentially) wasteful commitment of time, money,…

Stock options, such as the Incentive Stock Option (ISO) and the Non-Qualified Stock Option (NSO), are an important tool to incentivize employees, contractors, and consultants hired by a startup to work at their top capacity. These stock options provide workers with the right and opportunity to purchase shares in the future at the (theoretically) lower price that is set at the moment the stock is granted. Of course, the assumption here is that the company’s…

  The Basics When an individual is granted stock as compensation from his/her employer, the taxes may either be received fully at the time of grant or may be received incrementally along a vesting schedule. Naturally, the IRS considers this stock to be a form of financial gain that is subject to taxation. Under this default assumption, an individual pays taxes based on the value of stock at the time of vesting. However, under the…

17 U.S.C. 1201, the “anti-circumvention” provision of the Copyright Act, makes it illegal for a user of a “digital good” to access certain copyrighted information, like a computer program’s code, if the code is so written to disallow access to it. For example, if a user purchases a new smartphone that implements a measure to block access to its operating system’s code, and the user “circumvents” that measure to see the code, that user has…

Yaina Williams had an idea for a reality TV show, called “Married At 1st Sight,” where 3 different, random couples go on a 12-hour blind date, after which the TV audience selects a winning couple who then marry one another.  The goal is for the couple to remain together for at least 6 months in order to win prizes at the end of it all. Williams uploaded her “Treatment” to TV Writer’s Vault, a website…

Google, the often-verbed champion of the search engine, faced a lawsuit from the Author’s Guild in 2013 over Google Books’s “Library Project.” Since 2004, Google has worked with several libraries to create something of an online card catalog that, as Google proclaims, aims to make finding relevant books easier for those looking for them – “specifically, books they wouldn’t find any other way such as those that are out of print.” Naturally, this ain’t grandma’s…

Andrew Greene, an ex-director and head of corporate finance at Stratton Oakmont, Inc., the subject of the 2013 hit Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street, brought suit against Paramount Pictures and others last year alleging defamation and violations of his right to privacy under the laws of New York. Greene claims that the character Nicky “Rugrat” Koskoff is an identifiable portrayal of him, and that people who have watched the movie believe that…

Early this summer it was rumored that Universal Music Group and Sony Music were preparing to file lawsuits against SoundCloud, the popular Swedish music-streaming service (based in Berlin) that over the past eight years has helped tons of budding musicians advance their careers. SoundCloud only streams user-uploaded music, which in large part is made up of original compositions from smaller artists. The problem is that a lot of these artists are DJs who use non-original,…

Back in 2007, proud mother Stephanie Lenz recorded a video of her young son happily bouncing about to Prince’s song, “Let’s Go Crazy.” The video is only 29 seconds long, but received a gigantic amount of attention when Lenz went to court over it. Universal Music Publishing Group complained to YouTube that the video infringed a copyright that Universal owns, and demanded that the video to be taken down. YouTube complied, and Lenz fought back.…

On the first of September, at the request of rights holders representing Norwegian branches of United States media companies, a district court in Oslo, Norway ordered Norwegian internet service providers to block access to large file sharing websites such as The Pirate Bay. The injunctions will last for five years, and will apply to any new domain names that the companies may move to. If this story sounds old, that’s probably because these file sharing…

Two United States Courts of Appeals, the Fourth Circuit and the Federal Circuit, are set to examine the question of whether or not Section 2(a) of the United States Trademark Act, otherwise known as the “Lanham Act,” is in violation of the First Amendment and, therefore, unconstitutional. The section provides that the USPTO can deny or cancel a trademark on the Principal Register if it consists of “immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter, or which may…

Two companies, Kelly Services, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Kelly”) and Creative Harbor LLC, created employment-related apps that are not entirely similar, but would operate in the same general market. Unfortunately, both companies titled their respective apps as “WorkWire.” Kelly, who had not filed “WorkWire” for trademark protection, tried to submit WorkWire to the Apple App Store, failed, tried again, and succeeded. Two hours before the App Store released WorkWire for public purchase, however, Creative…

Sparks Networks (owner of JDate) has suffered some significant losses in the last few years, but it’s difficult to point the finger at companies like JSwipe when Sparks simply hasn’t kept up with the times. Unsurprisingly, most people would rather not pay for online dating services when there are so many that are free to use. JDate could have ventured into the world of ad-based revenue with a free app, and, prior to 2014, they…

Sparks Networks, owner of JDate.com, isn’t just suing JSwipe over a trademark or the letter “J.” There is a controversial and familiar patent issue in the midst as well. Back in 2011, Sparks sued Zoosk, OkCupid, and 2RedBeans (a dating website for Chinese-Americans) for infringement of the same patent at issue here. None of the 2011 cases went to final judgment, which presumably means that they all settled, bolstering the views of those who see…

JDate’s lawsuit against JSwipe has created a massive buzz in the world of internet news. The consensus among commentators is that Sparks Networks, the owner of JDate, is claiming an exclusive right to use the letter “J” in reference to services targeting the Jewish community. Consensus is not always completely correct, however. Among Sparks’ 8 allegations against JSwipe is “False Designation of Origin,” which is when somebody uses a company name that is likely to…

JSwipe, the increasingly popular tinder-like app for the Jewish community, has attracted over 375,000 users since its launch last April. Unfortunately, a quick rise to the top is often welcomed with a lawsuit. Sparks Networks, Inc., owner of the well known online dating service JDate, filed a complaint against JSwipe in November alleging (among other things) trademark and patent infringement. The case is still in its early stages, and is set to resume this month.…