Trademark Appeal

  • Renewing Your Trademark-Excusable Non-Use

    Renewing Your Trademark-Excusable Non-Use

    Anthony Cartee

    ·

    Renewing Your Trademark-Excusable Non-Use Renewing Your Trademark – Even after you have successfully registered a mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office, you are not done in ensuring your mark stays registered and protected. Your trademark application must be renewed 5-6 years after your first registration in order to maintain that registration. You must also renew the year before every ten-year period after the date of registration. Typically, when you renew a trademark, one of the requirements is showing that you have used the mark in commerce continuously since it has been registered. Absent a showing of “use,” your… Read More

  • TTAB Decisions have Preclusive Effect on Later Litigation

    TTAB Decisions have Preclusive Effect on Later Litigation

    Anthony Cartee

    ·

    TTAB Decisions Have Preclusive Effect on Later Litigation TTAB Decisions – In yet another intellectual property-focused case, the Supreme Court has ruled that a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) may have a binding, preclusive effect on later litigation in a federal district court. The opinion came with a narrowed focus, allowing preclusion for issues adjudicated by the TTAB that are “materially the same” to those the parties take to the federal court, if the “other ordinary elements of issue preclusion” are also met. (Read the full opinion here) The parties in B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries… Read More