In a trademark dispute between Lucky Brand Dungarees and Marcel Fashion Group, the U.S. Supreme Court had the opportunity to determine when a party is precluded from raising a defense raised in an earlier litigation between [...]
We’ve fielded many inquiries from businesses and brand developers, asking: do we need to file for trademark registration before we use the “brand” or “logo” that we are hoping to trademark? The answer, at least for trademarks, [...]
Do artists have rights in artworks that they have sold to others? France, Germany, and other European nations have long recognized that artists, including specifically visual artists, would retain “moral rights” in the artist’s work, impacting the [...]
In order for a trademark to be protectable, it must be distinctive, either by being inherently distinctive or by acquiring distinctiveness (often referred to as “secondary meaning”). In the case of Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, [...]
The United States Supreme Court recently issued a decision on whether “immoral or scandalous” trademarks could properly be barred under the Lanham Act’s express provisions against such marks. In its decision for In Re Brunetti (June [...]
The Supreme Court resolved a dispute between the circuit courts as to whether a bankrupt brand owner can use bankruptcy law to unilaterally “reject” (or revoke) a trademark license and thus strip a licensee of a [...]
In the case of In re Brunetti, a panel of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a finding of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the panel determining the Lanham Act (trademark law) prohibition [...]
