Follow Us
Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
Many trademark practitioners have noted the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s recent penchant for issuing refusals to register trademarks on the ground of failure to function as a trademark. In a recent precedential decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, In re Brunetti, 2022 U.S.P.Q.2d 764 (TTAB Aug 22, 2022), the Board provided some initial guidance on how it will evaluate failure-to-function refusals going forward. Whether or not by design, the Board could not have chosen a more colorful case to designate as precedential. Brunetti involved an applicant, who was a well-known protagonist of the Office (Erik Brunetti), and his efforts to register the mark FUCK for a wide variety of goods and services. Because Brunetti failed to overcome the Office’s prima facie showing that FUCK failed to function as a mark (i.e., was not perceived by the consuming public as an indicator of source), the Board ultimately denied registration.
*May exclude premium content
New York Federal Jury Rejects First Amendment Defense In ‘MetaBirkins’ NFT Standoff
By Todd Larson and Yonatan Shefa
Perhaps no other area in the technology sector — save perhaps the recent explosion of generative AI models — has raised as many thorny intellectual property issues as the proliferation of Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs. Leading the charge have been cases addressing whether NFT makers who utilize other parties’ trademarks can turn to the First Amendment as a defense to trademark infringement.
How to Diversify the Pool of Inventors — and Improve Innovation
By Christine E. Hollis, Jonathan C. Hughley and David C. Read
Efforts to diversify the inventive population will not only foster innovation across a wide range of businesses and industries but will also help greatly expand the pool of inventors across racial, gender and ethnic categories, and the country as a whole will realize numerous benefits.
Music Rates and Royalties In 2023
By Jeff Brabec and Todd Brabec
Part One of a Two Part Article
A look at the most important music rate and royalty areas, both past, present and future and how and by whom they are set or determined as well as the effect that legislation, litigation, the Copyright Royalty Board and the Department of Justice have had on the process.
By Matthew Weiss
Federal Circuit: Prosecution Laches Applies to Patent Claiming 1987 Priority Date
Federal Circuit: Appellate Court Lacks Jurisdiction Over Interlocutory Appeal of Protective Order Dispute
Copyright © ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
