Heitner Legal
A defendant can only be liable for trademark infringement if a third party’s owned trademark registration is used in a trademark way. Stated in another way, the defendant’s use needs to be one where the mark is identifying the source of the good or service. The creator of a well-known chocolate nut pie learned that […]
The Copyright Act allows the owner of an infringed copyright to recover statutory damages, when there is an innocent infringement, in a sum of between $750 and $30,000. When the infringement is willful, the statutory damages can reach as high as $150,000 per infringement. The Lanham Act allows the owner of an infringed trademark registration […]
A trademark applicant earns a mulligan on its application to register a golf-related mark. The ex-parte appeal was brought by Driven Golf, Inc., which had originally suffered a defeat when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office examining attorney assigned to its application determined there to be a likelihood of confusion with another mark that was […]
The natural zone of expansion doctrine is a special rule that can apply in the realm of trademark law. It comes up from time-to-time when two parties have separate claims of priority within a class of goods and services. When an individual or corporate entity files a trademark application, the application must specify the categories […]
It’s Tua Time. Former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will make his National Football League starting debut today as the Miami Dolphins take on the Los Angeles Rams. Does that mean it is also time to try to lock up valuable intellectual property surrounding the future of the Dolphins franchise? Unless you are actually Tagovailoa, you […]
Is it considered to be trademark infringement when one company decides to purchase keyword advertisements on search engines or the like, using another’s trademark registrations within the purchased search terms? A new recommendation from a U.S. Magistrate Judge sitting in the Northern District of Texas provides some thoughts on the subject matter. In the case […]
On July 2, in New York’s Southern District, global e-commerce startup (“Hello I Am Elliot”) brought an action into Court for trademark and copyright infringement against Derek J. Sine and Vander Group, another e-commerce company. Sine was Vice President of Vander Group, and together the parties were business affiliates of Hello I Am Elliot, licensed […]
The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) improperly denied the registration of Booking.com as a trademark based on the theory that it is a generic term. The main holding by the highest court is that just because a name (like “booking”) is generic, that […]
The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) has just issued an opinion that is not going to please individuals and corporate entities in the Cannabidiol (CBD) space. It has ruled, in the case of In re: Stanley Brothers Social Enterprises LLC, that a Colorado CBD company is not permitted to have its trademark registered because […]
One of the big reasons why individuals and companies choose to apply for the registration of trademarks is to enforce those registered marks against infringers. By owning a valid trademark registration, one is able to file suit in federal court and seek monetary and/or injunctive relief. The type of monetary damages on the table has […]