Patent law can be complex and overwhelming, even for experienced practitioners. In re Donald K. Forest issued by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit highlights one of these challenging...
Understanding Trademark Genericism Trademark law exists to protect distinctive marks that identify the source of a particular good or service. However, when a trademark becomes so widely known that...
Copyright law broadly protects creative works and the human endeavors required to create an original work of authorship. However, creativity should not be confused with utility. A dictionary...
A recent Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit case sheds light on two little-known trademark doctrines: the doctrine of natural expansion and the doctrine of tacking. Both can be useful arguments...
Consistency in intellectual property regimes is essential for a uniform practice of those intellectual property laws. Case in point is Thaler v. Perlmutter, a copyright case holding that works...
On January 31, 2025, the U.S. Copyright Office issued examination guidelines related to registration of works either assisted or generated by artificial intelligence tools. This blog discussed these...
The concept of distinctiveness is important under trademark law because it is one of the requirements for a federally registered mark. Distinctiveness goes to the strength of the mark. In theory, the...
Eight months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in the Elster case that so-called Names Clause under Section 2(c) of the Lanham Act, the federal trademark law, prohibited the use of a living person’s...
The U.S. Copyright Office issued its second report on issues related to registration of works using artificial intelligence (AI). The second report, issued on January 29, 2025, discusses...
Consistent with its previous fee study authorized by Congress in 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is increasing patent fees on a long list of categories. The study culminated in an...