IP & Technology Law Trends
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Recreational Marijuana and Marijuana-Related Products Found Not to Be in the “Zone of Expansion” of Smokers Articles, Including Vaping Devices
A New York District Court recently denied a preliminary injunction to stop use of the mark WOODSTOCK in association with cannabis and cannabis-related products, in part because cannabis and cannabis-related products were found not to be in the “zone...
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Supreme Court Grants Certiorari in Game-Changing Trademark Appeals
Continuing to feed its appetite for trademark rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently granted petitions for certiorari of two Second Circuit decisions implicating trademark law. The first case could change the burden of proof for recovering an i...
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Supreme Court Finds “Scandalous” Trademark Rule Unconstitutional
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Trademark Act’s section 2(a) provision precluding registration of “immoral” or “scandalous” trademarks violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling came in the case of Iancu v. Bru...
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Your Secrets Are Safe(r) With the Government Now
As we’ve discussed here before, there is significant tension between government’s duty to give the public access to its records, and the desire of those who deal with the government to keep some of their information confidential. Yesterday, confide...
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Supreme Court Holds that Trademark Licensee Retains Rights After Rejection of License by Licensor in Bankruptcy
In a long-awaited, nearly unanimous opinion written by Justice Kagan, resolving a circuit split described in our earlier blog post, the Supreme Court reversed the First Circuit and held that rejection by the licensor of a trademark license under Sect...
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USPTO Issues New Examination Guide for Examination of Marks for Cannabis and Cannabis-Related Goods and Services
The newly released Examination Guide for trademark examiners at the US Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) entitled “Examination of Marks for Cannabis and Cannabis-Related Goods and Services after Enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill” clarifies tha...
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