Trademark rights in the United States are established through use. As such, trademark applicants are not permitted to register a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to simply reserve rights in a mark that the applicant intends…

Zachary Miller, a well-known professional skateboarder, was paid by Easy Day Studios Pty. Ltd. and Reverb Communications, Inc. to help develop a video game, which was ultimately called Skater XL. Miller agreed to model various clothing outfits for the game,…

Nearly thirty years ago, on October 14, 1994, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction took the world by storm. The indie film with an $8 million budget turned into an international sensation, grossing over $200 million in box office sales and receiving…

In consolidated proceedings, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) considered two discovery-related motions filed by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (collectively, “CME”) in an Opposition filed by Intercontinental Exchange Holdings, Inc. (“ICE”) to registration…

After Skechers began selling open-back women’s shoes under the name “Commute Time” in August 2018, Easy Spirit, owner of the mark TRAVELTIME for similar shoes, sued Skechers in April 2019 for trademark and trade dress infringement under the Lanham Act…

With a split between the Second and Ninth Circuits looming regarding embedded content and copyright infringement, Instagram rolled out a new feature in mid-December allowing users to choose whether to allow embedding of their posts on third-party websites. Companies and…

A firefighter digging through rubble. An ambulance being lifted out of the wreckage. Photographs of these and other somber scenes from downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2001 formed the basis of photojournalist Anthony Fioranelli’s copyright infringement case against several media…