Understanding Trademark Genericism Trademark law exists to protect distinctive marks that identify the source of a particular good or service. However, when a trademark becomes so widely known that...
A recent Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case sheds light on two little-known trademark doctrines: the doctrine of natural expansion and the doctrine of tacking. Both can be useful arguments...
The concept of distinctiveness is important under trademark law because it is one of the requirements for a federally registered mark. Distinctiveness goes to the strength of the mark. In theory, the...
Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Elster case that so-called Names Clause under Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, prohibited the use of a living person’s...
By Brent T. Yonehara INTRODUCTION There has been recent controversy regarding the use of the Washington Redskins trade name. Today, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) summarily cancelled six...