That Sucks! Otherwise Generic gTLD Still Non-Registrable Because Not Attached with Preceding Domain Name

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On February 2, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed in In re Vox Populi Registry Ltd.,[1] the decision of the USPTO’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) refusing registration to .SUCKS as a service mark for Vox’s domain name registry services. However, the Fed Circuit agreed with the TTAB in that …

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New Public Page for Trademark Non-Use Petitions

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On February 4, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office released a new public page showing new ex parte expungement or reexamination petitions for failure to use the challenged mark in commerce. Since its implementation on December 21, 2021, there have been 20 petitions for expungement and 10 petitions for reexamination filed on non-used …

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Senator Requests Study on Uniting Federal IP Offices Into Single Office

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U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) has requested the Administrative Conference of the United States, the federal agency tasked with making federal functions more efficient, to conduct a study into the feasibility of having a unified, singular federal office devoted to intellectual property, combining the registration and prosecution functions currently handled by both the United States …

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USPTO Issues Sanctions Against Trademark Filing Entities (TFEs) for Fraudulent Filings

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On January 25, 2022, the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued sanctions against a group of trademark filing entities (“TFEs”): Abtach, Ltd., 360 Digital Marketing LLC, and Retrocube LLC, including the officers – Azneem Bilwani, CEO, Salman Yousuf, COO, Muhammad Saad Iqbal, President of Abtach, and Irsa Faruqui, President of Retrocube (collectively “Abtach TFEs”).  …

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Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021

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On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, the annual defense spending bill, was signed into law.  Focused on COVID-19 relief and funding the federal government operations, there are also several IP-related authorizations approved in the bill itself. First, the Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act of 2020 (CASE Act) creates a …

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U.S. Patent No. 10,752,636 B2

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U.S. Patent No. 10,752,636 B2 (‘636) issued on August 25, 2020, entitled ”HIV Inhibitor Compounds.”  It was issued to inventors Elizabeth Bacon, Elbert Chin, Jeromy Cottell, Ashley Katana, Darryle Kato, John Link, Nathan Shapiro, Teresa Trejo Martin, and Zheng-Yu Yang.  The applicant/assignee is Gilead Sciences, Inc., of Foster City, California.  The ‘636 patent is a …

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Arguing Takings of IP Rights is, Sadly, a Losing Proposition

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The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment states that private property “shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation.”[1]  Intellectual property rights – patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other IP – have long been considered property rights.  This belief, however, has been tested by the Supreme Court’s reluctance to specifically define IP as a …

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