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CALIFORNIA DISTRICT COURT PUTS BABY IN A CORNER
In the United States, federal laws take precedence over state law and common law causes of action where there is an overlap. This lesson was recently learned again in Lions Gate Entertainment Inc v TD Ameritrade Services Co, where the Central...
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CHANGE HAS COME TO TRADE SECRETS IN THE United States: The Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016
Concerns about trade secret theft have been increasing in recent years and the America Invents Act included provisions that reduced the commercial risks that a business would run by trying to keep inventions as trade secrets rather than patenting...
Read ArticleDISPARAGING TRADEMARKS: THE SKIN-NY ON THE SLANTS
When a trademark disparages identifiable groups of persons, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act 1 bars its registration. This provision has been in the Act since it was written, but became an active...
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Federal Circuit Held No International Exhaustion of Patent Rights in a Product Sold Outside and Imported Back Into The United States; Lawful Re-Sale or Use Restriction is Effective to Prevent Exhaustion of Patent Rights with Respect to Downstream Sales in Breach of the Restriction
In a 10 – 2 decision on February 12, 2016, the Federal Circuit en banc decided the case of Lexmark v. Impression. Deciding two issues, the court: upheld its 1992 decision in Mallickrodt v. Medipart that when a product is sold subject to a lawful...
Read ArticleEuropean Community Trademark registration for patterns and three-dimensional marks requires Acquired Distinctiveness in Each Member State
Owners of pattern and three-dimensional marks should take note of the substantial burden of proving acquired distinctiveness of their marks through use throughout the European Union. On April 21, 2015, Louis Vuitton’s European Community trademark...
Read ArticleB&B Hardware v. Hargis – What it Means and How it will Affect TTAB Litigation
The U.S. Supreme Court recently issued a decision that may significantly impact how Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) cases are litigated and whether potential litigants elect to forego TTAB litigation in certain circumstances. In...
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