Authors: Marie Lussier, Partner, and Elizabeth Varkovetski, Articling Student, Fogler, Rubinoff LLP Today, roughly 60% of the average Canadian family’s diet consists of prepackaged and processed foods. These are often high in saturated fat, sugars, and sodium and Health Canada has flagged those ingredients as major contributors to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.To combat these … Continue Reading
By Kriton Metaxopoulos, Managing Partner, at A. & K. METAXOPOULOS AND PARTNERS LAW FIRM Fairly recently, Greek Parliament passed a Bill introducing serious changes to the representation powers of Greek CMOs in an effort to strengthen their position in the Greek market. These changes seriously affect direct licensing in Greece and introduce rules that clearly favor Collective Management Organizations and limit the right of authors to … Continue Reading
By: Daniel H. Bliss Suppose you have filed a trademark application to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods/services for your business. During examination of the trademark application, the United States Patent and Trademark Office initially refused registration because of an alleged likelihood of confusion with a registered mark. What are the DuPont … Continue Reading
After more than a hundred years of settled U.S. trademark policy, an interesting problem has developed for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). How to square the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions striking down parts of the federal Lanham Act with the USPTO’s historical rejection of immoral, scandalous, or disparaging trademarks? Whether by … Continue Reading
By Dan H. Bliss Suppose you want to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods/services for your business. What if the trademark on the specimen of use has punctuation that is different from the drawing of the trademark in the trademark application? Does the punctuation in the trademark specimen of use have to … Continue Reading
Fanatics, LLC v FanFirm Pty Ltd [2025] FCAFC 87 Jessica Bell, Associate – Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne, Australia. The Full Federal Court of Australia has passed judgment on a clash between local sports merchandiser, FanFirm Pty Limited, and a global opponent, Fanatics, LLC in a case about when the line between trade mark co-existence and … Continue Reading
Authors: James Johnston, Samantha G. Rothaus, Jordan M. Thompson and Howard R. Weingrad. SAG-AFTRA and the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) have reached agreement on a new Commercials Contract, which is now officially in effect. Notably, the deal was reached without a strike — a rare outcome in recent entertainment-related collective bargaining where disputes, particularly over … Continue Reading
By Dan Bliss of Howard & Howard Suppose that you want to register your trademark that is in a non-English language on goods or services for your business in the United States. Will your non-English language trademark need to be translated to English to determine its registrability? If so, can your English translation trademark be … Continue Reading
Jessica Bell – Lawyer, Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne Australia David Cinque – Special Counsel, Kalus Kenny Intelex The Australian Trade Marks Office has permitted the registration of the trade mark UBER TUTORS after finding that transport and delivery giant, Uber Technologies Inc (Uber Tech) failed to oppose the mark’s registration under the Trade Marks Act … Continue Reading
By James P. Flynn, Epstein Becker Green In 2015, the Wall Street Journal observed why Birkenstock sandals might be considered cool: “It’s a taboo thing,” said New York-based stylist Brian Coats, who dresses Jimmy Fallon. “The fact that Birkenstocks are so uncool makes them cool.” The unstylish stereotype tied to Birkenstocks, said Mr. Coats, has … Continue Reading
Jessica Bell, Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne Australia A recent trade mark stoush in the eyelash extension market highlights the importance of registering trade marks in all states of Australia, and ensuring that trade marks that intend to be used are registered as soon as possible. The Australian Trade Marks Office (ATMO) recently dismissed two related … Continue Reading
By Daniel H. Bliss Suppose you want to register a trademark that identifies a source of goods/services for your business. What if the trademark describes an ingredient, quality, feature, function, characteristic, or purpose of your goods/services? Can your trademark be too descriptive to obtain a registration from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office? The answer … Continue Reading
By Marie Lussier of Fogler Rubinoff LLP In July 2024, I discussed proposed changes to trademark proceedings in Canada. Following a public consultation period, revised Regulations came into force on April 1, 2024 that incorporate those proposed changes. The changes aim to improve the efficiency of dispute resolution proceedings in Canada. Time will tell if … Continue Reading
By Gregory J. Krabacher, Epstein Becker Green Recently, the U.S. Copyright Office published the second of an intended three-part report entitled “Copyright and Artificial Intelligence.” Here are those three parts: Collectively, this report – I’ll refer to it here as the “AI Report” – is intended to provide the Copyright Office’s perspective on fundamental questions … Continue Reading
By Daniel H. Bliss Suppose that you have obtained a U.S. trademark registration for your trademark on goods or services for your business. Can your trademark registration be cancelled with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office based on genericness? If so, what is the appropriate time period for assessing whether a trademark is generic? Is … Continue Reading
Written by: Aaron Fishman, Andrew Jenkins, Sean Mellino Intellectual property (IP) is often misunderstood, leading to costly mistakes for businesses and individuals alike. Many assume that once they create something, they automatically own the rights everywhere, or that patents and trademarks offer blanket protection. In reality, IP is a complex legal landscape governed by factors … Continue Reading
By Elena Nikolarea, Associate at A. & K. METAXOPOULOS AND PARTNERS LAW FIRM It has become quite common for advertisers of different kinds of products or services, both in Greece and abroad, to intend to use photos and/or videos of Greek archaeological monuments (such as the Acropolis etc.) for their promotional campaigns. In this regard, … Continue Reading
By Jessica Bell, Lawyer – Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne, Australia Pop star Katy Perry has successfully appealed a Federal Court ruling over the use of an Australian designer’s trade mark registration for the words KATIE PERRY. The recent decision by the Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously overturned Justice Brigitte Markovic’s findings in Taylor … Continue Reading
By Marie Lussier In January 2025, the Registrar of Trademarks launched a pilot project in which it sends notices to certain registrants asking them to show use of their registered mark, failing which their registration is to be cancelled. These notices are subject to the same modalities as those issued at the request of a … Continue Reading
By Daniel H. Bliss Suppose you have uncovered a copyrighted work from another that contains copyright management information such as a copyright notice. However, you want to remove or alter this copyright management information. Should you remove or alter any copyright management information from the copyrighted work? The answer is NO because there is liability!… Continue Reading
By Abhijeet Das, Partner, Pragya Jain, Associate and Ashish Kumar, Associate, LexCounsel Law Offices Introduction Post-pandemic, there has been a significant rise in digital marketing worldwide. Companies are utilising platforms (“Platforms”) like Google Ads and various social media networks to connect with prospective customers. To showcase their products or services on these Platforms, businesses often … Continue Reading
As we head into a new year after a US election year, we are sure to see two things in the media, all kinds of articles on New Year’s Resolutions and all kinds of articles on what we can anticipate occurring in the inaugural year of the new administration. So I thought that I would … Continue Reading
A recent decision of the Federal Court, Trial Division in Little Brown Box Pizza, LLC v. DJB (2024 FC 1592) provides guidance on the question of special circumstances that can excuse an absence of trademark use in Section 45/summary cancellation proceedings. The Court’s analysis and findings should be particularly useful to U.S./non-Canadian brand owners looking … Continue Reading
Defamation cases are hard ones in the real world. Recent US matters involving Dominion Voting, Sara Palin, and even Cheetos show that these cases continue to interest the general public as well as legal cognoscenti. Resolving these lawsuits is dependent on understanding concepts of truth, accuracy, fact, opinion, and all manner of issues that define … Continue Reading
