Bogus trademark infringement threats violated the First Amendment

In 2011, two women established a public Facebook group where parents and community members could discuss matters related to the Los Lunas, New Mexico school district. This online forum served as a space for open dialogue about local education issues for seven years before drawing administrative attention. In 2018, the district's superintendent discovered the group [...]

By |2025-03-12T12:57:34-05:00March 12th, 2025|Infringement, Trademarks|Comments Off on Bogus trademark infringement threats violated the First Amendment

Supreme Court decision on trademark damages protects corporate affiliates from infringement claims

A long-running trademark case between two real estate companies over the mark DEWBERRY reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the lower court improperly awarded profits from non-party companies. The decision clarified that only a named defendant's profits – not those of its affiliates – can be recovered in a trademark infringement case. The [...]

By |2025-02-26T10:59:19-06:00February 26th, 2025|Infringement, Litigation, Trademarks|Comments Off on Supreme Court decision on trademark damages protects corporate affiliates from infringement claims

GenAI and copyright: Court dismisses almost all claims against OpenAI in authors’ suit

Plaintiff authors sued large language model provider OpenAI and related entities for copyright infringement, alleging that plaintiffs’ books were used to train ChatGPT. Plaintiffs asserted six causes of action against various OpenAI entities: (1) direct copyright infringement, (2) vicarious infringement, (3) violation of Section 1202(b) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), (4) unfair competition [...]

By |2024-03-14T21:25:44-05:00February 14th, 2024|Artificial Intelligence, Copyright, Infringement|Comments Off on GenAI and copyright: Court dismisses almost all claims against OpenAI in authors’ suit

Profit-Motivated Jokers Beware: Key Takeaways From Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products

In a highly anticipated decision, the Supreme Court in the case of Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC recently weighed in on the applicability of the Rogers test [1] and the fair-use exemption from trademark dilution liability. Justice Kagan, writing for the unanimous court, held that “when an alleged infringer uses a trademark as a designation of [...]

By |2023-06-09T13:23:34-05:00June 9th, 2023|Infringement, Lanham Act|Comments Off on Profit-Motivated Jokers Beware: Key Takeaways From Jack Daniel’s v. VIP Products

NFL team’s current legal snag underscores the importance of trademark clearance

The rollout of the Washington Commanders' brand recently hit a snag when the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) denied a number of the team's applications to register the trademarks COMMANDERS and WASHINGTON COMMANDERS. As you can see from this recent NBC Sports piece, there are other trademark owners who can claim rights in [...]

By |2023-05-25T12:41:13-05:00May 25th, 2023|Branding, Infringement, Trademarks|Comments Off on NFL team’s current legal snag underscores the importance of trademark clearance
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