Features

Not Your Property, Your Business: When Customized Products Become the Business of Rights Holders and Courts
In some instances the appearance of third-party intellectual property on items purchased, owned and customized by the purchaser may be legal under the doctrines of first sale and fair use.
Features

New COVID Relief Bill Brings Changes to Trademark and Copyright Practice
The new, more than 5,000-page spending bill, which includes the latest COVID-19 relief, had a few surprises under its cover. Two of those surprises focus directly on intellectual property and amount to sea changes in the trademark and copyright infringement realms.
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Unseating Inelegant Notions of Product Design Functionality
In Blumenthal Distributing, Inc. v. Herman Miller, Inc., the 9th Circuit considered whether or not the or not the best-selling piece of furniture ever is functional.
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Global Perspective On Filing Trademark Registrations
The entertainment industry is a global business, but many U.S. brand owners do not realize that their valuable trademark rights stop at the U.S. border.
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Deciphering the USPTO's Material Alteration Standard for Amending Marks
As brands mature over time, their owners often seek to update marks that are subject to a federal registration or registration application. In some cases, the impetus for the amendment may be deliberately to freshen, tweak, or otherwise modernize the subject mark. In other cases, brand owners may recognize after the fact that their current usage of a mark does not match the mark as originally registered or applied for.
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Testing for Genericness After USPTO v. Booking.com
In the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of USPTO v. Booking.com, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the term Booking.com is not necessarily generic merely because it is composed of two components, each itself generic. In so deciding, Justice Ginsburg averred that there is an appropriate metric to determine if such a term is indeed generic, that of consumer perception.
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Methods for Trademark Valuations
Valuations of trademarks, such as those in the entertainment industry, are most commonly performed in relation to a sale or licensing transaction or for lending and collateral purposes.
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What's Your Trademark Worth? Determining the Value of Trademarks For Collateral, Sale or Licensing
This article explores the options available to a client to value its trademarks during a financial crisis, to ensure one of the most valuable assets it owns can continue to work for the company and see it through the lean times.
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Damages In Trademark Infringement Litigations
During a time when online marketing, virtual shopping and electronic communication are more widely used than ever, it is critically important for entertainment industry businesses to be highly aware of how they are using trademarks, the scope of a trademark owner's rights and the consequences of infringing them.
Features

The Russian Vodka Saga
Federal Treasury Enterprise Sojuzplodoimport v. Spirits International BV What do the fall of the Soviet Union, a heist of trademark rights, and Stolichnaya vodka have in common? They are all key components of the Russian Federation's efforts to reclaim its trademarks in Stolichnaya vodka.
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