At the end of last month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) released a guide clarifying how they were approaching the refusals of applied-for marks that could be generic. In the past, examining attorneys at the USPTO used a heightened “clear evidence” standard when refusing an applied-for mark for genericness, which resulted in
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When to File a Trademark Application
By William W. Stroever on
Posted in Intellectual Property, Trademarks
One of the questions we hear the most from current and prospective clients is whether they should be filing a federal trademark application to protect a certain trademark. This question is often followed up with the question of which trademarks should they protect. Identifying which trademarks are important to protect and where you will get…
Booking.trademark!
By William W. Stroever on
Posted in Intellectual Property
On Monday the Supreme Court issued a highly anticipated decision in United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com, ruling that a term is generic for a class of goods or services only if the term has that meaning to consumers, and rejecting the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s (“USPTO”) per se rule…
United States Patent and Trademark Office – COVID-19 Update
By William W. Stroever on
Posted in Trademarks
Firstly, we hope that everyone is staying safe and handling the present circumstances as well as possible. The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has taken steps to accommodate intellectual property owners affected by the coronavirus by extending certain patent and trademark-related deadlines. Below is a quick summary of those extended deadlines and the…
A New Age of Digital Piracy
By William W. Stroever on
On Monday the United States Supreme Court addressed a case of piracy about pirates. In a unanimous decision in Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court ruled that states have sovereign immunity against copyright infringement claims, based on both Court precedent and the language of the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act of 1990 (CRCA). The case…