Insight on Opposition & Cancellation Proceedings
What comes first? A trademark registration or use of the trademark in commerce by the owner who is seeking registration? In other words, can one obtain a federal trademark registration without first using the mark in commerce? The answer is no!
Trademark use is always a prerequisite to registration in the United States Patent and…
Connecticut trademark lawyers representing Parfums de Coeur Ltd. have filed a case against Victoria’s Secret Brand Management and its parent company Limited Brands Inc., alleging trademark infringement and other causes of action for Victoria’s Secret use of the trademark VS Fantasies and Victoria’s Secret Fantasies for among other things, eau de parfum. The case, Parfums…
A petition for cancellation of a U.S. trademark registration is available to any party who believes that an already existing federal trademark registration should not be allowed to remain an active registration due to a variety of grounds, including abandonment of the trademark.
What is meant by trademark abandonment and how is it proven?
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Let’s suppose that your business has filed a trademark application, and it has been approved for registration by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Does that mean that you now have been awarded a trademark registration? No!
Each and every trademark application that gets approved for registration first must be published in the Official…
Candace Nelson, a judge on the Food Network’s successful show, Cupcake Wars, is in her own battle after suing a Fairfield, Connecticut based business for trademark infringement. Nelson’s company, Sprinkles Cupcakes, Inc., has filed a lawsuit in Connecticut District Court alleging that Pink Sprinkles LLC of Fairfield has committed trademark infringement based on Pink Sprinkles’s…
A Connecticut disc jockey has sued MTV”s Jersey Shore for trademark infringement. The plaintiff, Paul Lis of Farmington, has used the name “DJ Paulie” for years as part of his professional identity. He is also the owner of a United States trademark registration for “DJ Paulie”for entertainment services. In the lawsuit, Mr. Lis claims that…
Smart business people continue to make the same mistake: that obtaining a trademark registration is a simple administrative process, akin to going to your local DMV to obtain your car registration sticker. The fact is that trademark law and trademark rights are a nuanced area of law, requiring proper planning and diligence to ensure that…
In choosing a trademark lawyer to handle your trademark infringement, trademark opposition or trademark cancellation matter, you should first satisfy yourself that they the particular trademark attorney or trademark law firm has the experience to handle your case. Certain factors that will help guide your decision may include:
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Preparing and filing a trademark application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office is not a simple task. Like most governmental agencies, the Trademark Office has many rules and regulations that must be followed in the filing process. If a trademark owner does not carefully follow these requirements, chances are that his/her trademark application…
While it may come as a surprise to many business owners, a federal trademark registration does not grant the owner a 100% right to use the trademark in interstate commerce. How is this so? The answer lies mainly in the role and limited jurisdiction of the United States Patent and Trademark Office and Trademark Trial and…
