Month: August 2014

Trademark owners should diligently protect their trademarks from infringement and other misuse (e.g., blurring, tarnishment, unfair competition, passing off, false advertising and cybersquatting) that may harm the owner's goodwill and business reputation. A trademark...

Innovation is critical to staying competitive in a global marketplace. It's what keeps our economy moving-driving the growth of jobs with better wages and creating a higher standard of living for all. For most of the 20th century, the U.S. has been the worldwide...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) released a report earlier this year detailing the continual rise in counterfeiting, which has become a big business that can be detrimental to small businesses and consumers. Counterfeiting reaches a diverse...

For years, patent holders have utilized the strategy of suing on patent infringement claims as a means of profitability. However, recent trends in court rulings and proceedings have demonstrated that in the fast-growing technology sector, patent litigation may not be...

Trademark law protects a trademark owner's exclusive right to use a trademark when use of a mark by another party would be likely to cause consumer confusion as to the source or origin of goods. To establish a violation of the Lanham Act for either a registered mark,...

In a unanimous ruling on June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held that human genes are not patentable...or at least not natural human genes. Although all nine Justices said that naturally occurring isolated biological material is not patentable, their ruling was...

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) recently issued a decision that reminds all trademark owners it is crucial to properly use trademarks on their own websites to reinforce trademark importance. This decision emphasizes the importance of educating the...

The implementation of the first-to-file system established by the America Invents Act(AIA) will take effect on March 16, 2013. On February 14, 2013, the United States Patent and Trademark Office published a series of guidelines to govern first-to-file patent...

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced last June their decision to expand internet domain space through the new generic Top-Level Domain (new gTLD) program. The program will allow for potential domain owners to create their own top...