Category Archives: Trademark

Administrative Deposition Subpoenas for TTAB Proceedings

In opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”), subpoenas for witness testimony sometimes are necessary. Under 35 U.S.C. § 24, “the clerk of any United States court for the district wherein testimony is to be taken for use in any contested case in the Patent and Trademark Office shall, upon […]

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CHILL that Hard Seltzer Related to Beer

Two key considerations for likelihood of confusion are the similarities between the marks and the relatedness of the goods. See Herbko Int’l, Inc. v. Kappa Books, Inc., 308 F.3d 1156, 64 USPQ2d 1375, 1380 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (“The likelihood of confusion analysis considers all DuPont factors for which there is record evidence but ‘may focus […]

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Going From Merely Descriptive to Deceptively Misdescriptive

Section 2(e)(1) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1052(e)(1), prohibits registration on the Principal Register of designations that are deceptively misdescriptive of the goods or services to which they are applied, absent a showing of acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f). See In re Hinton, 116 USPQ2d 1051, 1051-52 (TTAB 2015) (finding “THCTea” deceptively misdescriptive […]

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Informational EVERBODY VS RACISM Fails to Function as a Trademark

On January 22, 2024, the Federal Circuit re-designated In re GO & Associates, LLC, No. 2022-1961, — F.4th — (Fed. Cir. Nov. 14, 2023) as precedential, as requested by the USPTO under Fed. Cir. R. 32.1(e). The Federal Circuit had affirmed a refusal to register the proposed mark EVERBODY VS RACISM for failure to function […]

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