The Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 provided for two new ex parte proceedings for non-use trademark challenges, Expungement and Reexamination. Prior to the new proceedings, if a trademark applicant encountered a trademark registration that blocked its application from registering at the Trademark Office, the only option was to initiate an…
A recent precedential case from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB” or the “Board”) highlights the problems associated with adopting weak marks. See Shenzhen IVPS Technology Co. Ltd. V. Fancy Pants Products, LLC, 2022 USPQ2d 1035 (TTAB 2022) [precedential], where the Board dismissed an opposition under Section 2(d) of…
In a recent precedential decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) denied a petition to cancel for failure of the petitioner to prove technical trademark use or use analogous to trademark use before respondent’s priority date, see JNF LLC v. Harwood International Incorporated, 2022 USPQ2d 862 (TTAB 2022)…
In a recent decision from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”), a Cancellation Petition is denied on all grounds. Both parties are claiming rights to the same mark for use with a magazine. The subject mark is THE NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE & Design Logo, and the Petitioner’s grounds…
If you are an owner of either a supplemental registration or of common law rights, and you are challenging another party before the TTAB based on priority and likelihood of confusion, you would face similar hurdles. Only a trademark registration on the principal register will receive all the rights provided…
American University (“Petitioner”), a college located in Washington, DC filed a petition with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board” or “TTAB”) to cancel the mark AUK American University Of Kuwait & Design for educational services for college level courses. The grounds for cancellation were likelihood of confusion and…
In a recent Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board”) decision the Board granted the petition in part for partial cancellation for the mark POLO GIRL for the following services, “[e]ntertainment in the nature of ongoing television programs in the field of polo sports events, and polo lifestyle in International…
Section 18 of the Trademark Act (15 U.S.C. §1068) provides a plaintiff with a basis to restrict or limit the goods or services in a registration based on grounds of likelihood of confusion. Section 18 applies to inter partes proceedings. It is unclear as to whether Section 18 would also…
A recent case from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (the “Board” or “TTAB”) focuses attention on part of the Lanham Act, which is not often the subject of many Board Decisions. Section 2(c) prohibits registration of a mark if it consists of or comprises a name, portrait, or signature…
This recent precedential decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB” or the “Board”) cautions applicants to be in a position to show documentary proof contemporaneous with the trademark filing date that there was a bona fide intent for use of the proposed mark. See A&H Sportswear Co., Inc.…