People tagging the wrong place on Instagram did not help prove trademark infringement

The City and County of San Francisco sued the Port of Oakland and the City of Oakland alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition. The dispute began when Oakland renamed its airport "San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport," which San Francisco claimed created confusion and harmed the brand of its own airport, San Francisco International Airport [...]

By |2024-11-25T13:52:48-06:00November 25th, 2024|Litigation, Social Media|Comments Off on People tagging the wrong place on Instagram did not help prove trademark infringement

Redirecting URL was unlawful but did not cause damages

In the months leading up to the FDA shutting down plaintiff’s business, one of the co-owners of the business left and set up a competing enterprise. For a few weeks, the former co-owner set plaintiff’s domain name to forward to the new company’s website. Plaintiff sued and the court held that redirecting the URL was [...]

By |2024-04-02T16:13:07-05:00April 2nd, 2024|Cybersquatting, Litigation|Comments Off on Redirecting URL was unlawful but did not cause damages

Who owns the trademark rights in the name of a user-created community?

In the realm of online communities, where does the ownership of trademark rights lie – with the platform hosting the community or the individual user who creates and develops it? The intriguing case involving Reddit and the founder of the well-known r/WallStreetBets subreddit presents a scenario that addresses this question concerning online communities and intellectual property rights. [...]

By |2024-02-09T14:58:37-06:00January 16th, 2024|Trademarks|Comments Off on Who owns the trademark rights in the name of a user-created community?

Online platforms will have to answer for online sales of alleged counterfeit products

A federal court in New York has denied the motion to dismiss filed by Chinese online platforms Alibaba and AliExpress in a lawsuit brought by a toymaker alleging that these companies’ merchant customers were engaged in contributory trademark and copyright infringement through the online sale of counterfeit products. Background of the Case Plaintiff toymaker accused [...]

By |2023-12-28T09:25:05-06:00December 28th, 2023|Copyright, Couterfeiting, Trademarks|Comments Off on Online platforms will have to answer for online sales of alleged counterfeit 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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