Tag Archives: Trademark

With “spooky season” dominating October holiday talk, it’s easy to forget poor old National Apple Day or simply Apple Day, which took place last Saturday and is observed every October 21. According to Wikipedia, one can celebrate Apple Day in any number of ways, from “apple games in a garden to large village fairs with cookery demonstrations, games, apple identification, juice and cider, gardening advice, and the sale of many hundreds of apple varieties.” Those activities are all well and good – and I fully appreciate that “bobbing for apples” wasn’t listed because,… More

How do companies develop, protect, and enforce their brands and content across the ever-growing landscapes of Web 3.0? Lawyers from Foley Hoag’s Trademark, Copyright & Unfair Competition practice discussed 10 tips including best practices, emerging trends, recent case law, and potential pitfalls for companies navigating the metaverse and beyond.

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Who said there’s no looking back? It is crucial to consider key takeaways from the most important IP cases in 2022 when planning for 2023. Foley Hoag presented a 60-minute webinar on Thursday, January 19, 2023, offering guidance on what we learned last year and what to prepare for in the new year.

Our speakers focused on developments in trademark, copyright, patent and trade secret law.

Speakers:

• Paul Downs,…

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As we ring in 2023, sip some champagne and make a resolution to check in on your trademark portfolio more often.  It misses you!

Here are a few productive questions to ask:

1. Do your registrations cover your reality?  You may have launched new brands or drastically redesigned your logo since you last interacted with the USPTO.  Or perhaps your business has expanded or evolved,…

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Ethical duties are paramount in any legal practice. Matters relating to copyright, trademark and advertising law give rise to some special ethical considerations. Even unintentional missteps can be detrimental to the attorney, and their client.

In this 60-minute webinar, designed for in-house counsel, we discussed how to identify and address ethical issues to guard against potentially irreversible consequences.

Topics

• Oaths filed with the Patent and Trademark Office,…

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March 8 was, according to questionable sources, National Retro Video Game Day in the US.  As one of Foley Hoag’s several resident video game nerds, this reminded me of one of my favorite video-game-related IP disputes.

In the 1970s, a nearly century-old Japanese playing card company called Nintendo started to branch out into electronic gaming, and in 1979 started a coin-operated arcade gaming division. … More

On June 30, amidst the traditional flurry of end-of-term opinions, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the first case to have been argued before it via teleconference, United States Patent and Trademark Office et al. v. Booking.com B.V.  In addition to making history in the remote-work era, this case caught the attention of trademark lawyers and some mainstream media;… More

The picture you see is of a shirt from my husband’s closet – a gift I gave him a few years ago.  He is a big Ohio State Buckeyes fan, and this is sort of an inside joke for OSU football fans.  The word THE superimposed on the shape of the state of Ohio, in scarlet and gray, instantly calls to mind Ohio State.  For some reason I have never grasped,… More

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1117(a), trademark holder who proves infringement may receive as damages an award of profits “subject to the principles of equity.”  This phrase has divided the circuit courts going back several decades, with six circuits requiring a finding of willful infringement in order to obtain an infringer’s profits, and the other six circuits allowing for such damages without a finding of willful infringement.… More

In our prior blog entries here, here, here, here, here and here, we followed the course of Matal v. Tam, the case involving the mark “THE SLANTS.”  In that case, the Supreme Court struck down a portion of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C.… More

On January 11, 2019, the Cancellation Division of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (“EUIPO”) rendered a surprising decision that revoked in its entirety the McDonald’s Company’s BIG MAC trademark registration, which had been registered in the EU since December 1998.

This is the latest chapter in a fight between McDonald’s and Supermac’s, a competing chain that operates fast-food restaurants in both parts of Ireland.… More

If you haven’t heard already, New York Fashion Week is here! As usual, a lineup of awe-inspiring shows is expected to roll out over the next several days, as it does every September and February, highlighting the latest fashion trends of some of world’s most famous designers.  One of the big stories surrounding New York Fashion Week this year is the amount of cultural diversity expected to appear on the runway. … More

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

The general rule of thumb for trademarks in the U.S. – and everywhere else, for that matter – is “the earlier, the better.”  It’s almost always the right move to file a trademark application as early as possible, and well in advance of a product or service announcement, both to (a) minimize the possibility of conflicting marks and filings; and (b) mitigate the potential for attempted trademark and domain name “squatting” that inevitably follows a well-publicized product/service announcement. … More

When I heard that the Girl Scouts of the United States of America filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America last week, I was fascinated.  As a former Girl Scout and troop leader myself, who also happens to practice trademark law, I have a lot of thoughts about this case.  Many people predicted that the Boy Scouts’ decision to admit girls last year would put the organizations on a collision course. … More