The Supreme Court issued its ruling yesterday in a trademark lawsuit between Jack Daniel’s and the seller of a dog toy resembling a bottle of Jack Daniel’s famous whiskey. In a unanimous decision, the Court reversed the Ninth Circuit and held that the “Bad Spaniels” dog toy was subject to the usual likelihood of confusion […]
By Rachael Peters Pugel and David G. Barker On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit declined to vacate a district court’s ruling at the request of the parties after they reached a settlement of their trademark dispute. In Reserve Media, Inc. v. Efficient Frontiers, Inc., Efficient Frontiers alleged that Reserve Media, a restaurant technology startup, infringed its […]
By Rachael Peters Pugel and David G. Barker Last week, President Trump signed into law the Orrin G. Hatch–Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act. The Act modifies existing law under the Copyright Act, and largely affects only those who deliver digital music content or collect royalty payments from it. The Act, which was passed unanimously by […]
By Rachael Peters Pugel and David G. Barker The Federal Circuit has reversed, for the second time, the much-followed copyright infringement case, Oracle America, Inc. v. Google LLC, which has been ongoing since 2010. Oracle filed suit alleging Google copied and used 37 packages of Oracle’s Java application programming interface (“API”), as well as the […]
By Rachael Peters Pugel and Andrew F. Halaby The Supreme Court has granted a writ of certiorari challenging the constitutionality of inter partes review proceedings conducted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office under the America Invents Act. The Court’s ruling in this matter, especially if it holds inter partes reviews to be unconstitutional, […]