By Larry Brocchini When my college-bound son asked me if the word “THE” could be trademarked, I wondered if my love for IP law had rubbed off on him. Turns out, his curiosity was driven by his passion for sports, not trademarks. Specifically, Ohio State University (an institution my son...
Intellectual Property litigation partner Larry Brocchini will be one of several attorneys representing Fossil, Inc. and Macy’s, Inc. in a matter to be briefed and argued before the United States Supreme Court when the Court reconvenes in the fall of 2019. The issue before the Supreme Court is the interpretation...
Just prior to adjourning for its summer recess, the United States Supreme Court ruled that First Amendment free speech considerations required the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) to register the trademark “FUCT.” The “FUCT” case is the second in three years contesting federal trademark registration content restrictions. In...
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear three cases on the issue of whether gay and transgender workers are protected under the federal anti-discrimination laws. As noted in a prior post, in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., the en banc Second Circuit Court of Appeals (which covers New York) recently...
The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled that a copyright owner can only file a complaint for copyright infringement after the Copyright Office has registered the work at issue, putting an end to a split among the federal circuit appellate courts on that issue. As I previously reported, while the...
As an update of my reporting concerning the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s controversial policy of seeking to recover attorneys’ fees in connection with district court review of denials of trademark and patent applications, the Supreme Court today granted the petition for certiorari in Iancu v. Nantkwest and agreed...
Recent developments in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Alfonso Ribeiro, known for playing Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, against video game maker Epic Games confirm the questions raised in my prior post as to whether Ribeiro could register a copyright in the Carlton dance and bring a...
The recent filing of a federal copyright infringement lawsuit by Alfonso Ribeiro—“Carlton” on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and YouTube celebrity, famous for "the Carlton,” his arm-swinging movements to the Tom Jones diddy "It’s Not Unusual"—raises the question of whether and to what extent choreographed dance moves can by copyrighted...
In a rare, but limited, win for employees on the issue of arbitration of employment disputes, a unanimous Supreme Court today ruled in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira that trucking company New Prime Inc. cannot compel arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) in a class action alleging failure to...
As I reported previously, following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that the Lanham Act’s statutory bar to registration of “disparaging” trademarks ran afoul of the First Amendment, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit struck down a companion portion of the federal trademark law that precluded registration...