The United States Patent & Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) and Patent Trial & Appeal Board (“PTAB”) will conduct hearings on the campus of Northeastern University School of Law on Friday, October 3, 2014. The TTAB panel (Chief Judge Gerard. F. Rogers, Judge Linda A. Kuczma, and Judge Susan J. Hightower) will hear argument in the matter of Diamond Power International v. Clyde Bergemann, Inc., Opposition No. 91201996. In this matter the Court will consider (1) the likelihood of confusion between Plaintiff’s ASH-formative marks (including ASH, ASHCOLITE, ASHCORE, and A-S-H) used in connection with waste disposal and material handling equipment for power plants including ash conveying systems and Applicant’s ASHCON mark used in connection with design, development, and manufacturing services for ash material handling systems; and (2) whether Applicant’s ASHCON mark is merely descriptive of Applicant’s services.
The PTAB panel (Judge Brian J. McNamara, Judge Richard E. Rice, and Judge Carl M. DeFranco) will hear argument in the matter of Positec USA, Inc. and RW Direct, Inc. v. Black & Decker, Inc., IPR 2013-00502 concerning U.S. Patent No. 5,544,417 (“Multi-Purpose Motor Mounting System for a String Trimmer”). In this matter the Board will consider whether the ‘417 patent is anticipated by two prior art patents or obvious over those references in view of a third prior art patent.
This event is co-sponsored by Northeastern and the Boston Patent Law Association. Registration information is not yet available. For more information on the event please see http://www.northeastern.edu/law/academics/conferences/ttab/.