Tag Archives: Functionality

Law Students Seek to “Free Rapunzel from The Trademark Tower” by Opposing RAPUNZEL as a Trademark for Dolls

In an interesting case pending before the TTAB, law students from the Suffolk University IP and Entrepreneurship Clinic have opposed an application filed by United Trademark Holdings, Inc. to register RAPUNZEL as a trademark for dolls and toy figures.  The students, led by clinic director Loletta “Lolita” Darden, represent Professor Rebecca Curtin, a trademark law professor and mother of a young girl who has purchased dolls. … More

Lego Mark Wars: Toy Giant Snaps Together Two Favorable 3D Trademark Rulings in Europe

2On June 16, 2015, Lego Juris A/S obtained two favorable decisions from the General Court of the European Union which will afford protection to famous Lego “minifigure” as a three-dimensional (3D) trademark; a protection that has been denied to its even more famous standard building brick.

For many years the Danish company, founded by Mr. Ole Kirk Christiansen, relied on patents that were filed at the end of the 1950s. … More

Sixth Circuit Rules that Trade Dress Law Does Not Prevent Copying of Functional Design

In Groeneveld Transport Efficiency, Inc. v. Lubecore International, Inc., 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 18897 (6th Cir. Sept. 12, 2013), an industry veteran and a relative newcomer battled over the appearance of  a rather specialized product: automatic lubrication pumps for commercial trucks.

The plaintiff, Groeneveld, began making its pump in the 1980s.  Lubecore, the defendant, began selling its own pump roughly 20 years later. … More