Even if a claim for cancellation by registration under section 18 of the Lanham Act can be brought in federal court, the claim here was not plausible. Background Plaintiff CFA Institute initiated this action against defendants alleging, among other things, ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Norman K. Moon U.S. District Court - Western District

Where the district court’s conclusions that one party was prevailing and that this case was “exceptional” under the Lanham Act were both rejected, an award of attorneys’ fees was reversed. Background Citi Trends Inc. filed a declaratory judgement action against ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Per Curiam Opinion

Where Royal Touch Hospitality and others were  found liable for continuing to use Choice Hotels’ trademarks after the franchise agreement was terminated, Choice was awarded damages and attorneys’ fees. Background Choice Hotels International Inc. alleges that A Royal Touch Hospitality ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon U.S. District Court - Western District

Where Choice Hotels demonstrated its former franchisee continued to use the hotel trademarks after the franchise arrangement ended, thus violating the Lanham Act, the hotel chain was awarded attorneys’ fees and a permanent injunction preventing defendants from using the marks. ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Elizabeth K. Dillon U.S. District Court - Western District

Where the owner of a patent for a radiation shield provided a distributor with products to use for a demonstration and copyrighted photos to use in its marketing materials and the distributor then altered the photographs to sell its own ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a company licensed the use of a trademark without disclosing that the company itself was under a license to use that mark, and failed to disclose the license at any point during the discovery process, barring the company from ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

A pharmaceutical company was not entitled to additional patent term adjustment time because the Patent and Trademark Office correctly determined that any time that could be awarded based on a delay caused by the PTO’s failure to act by certain ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a company hired an outside firm to create a commercial website and the outside firm used an unlicensed, copyrighted photo to accompany an article posted on one of the webpages, both the company and the owner of the outside ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Michael F. Urbanski U.S. District Court - Western District

Where a developer created software to automate government defense contract review and the government later worked with a private company to create a derivative work using the software’s source code, the developer was barred from suing the company for copyright ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Henry E. Hudson U.S. District Court - Eastern District

After the court found RXD Media infringed on Apple’s trademarks, Apple provided evidence of actual consumer confusion. Because Apple will suffer irreparable injury without an injunction, RXD has been enjoined from using the IPAD and IPOD marks on its products. ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Liam O'Grady U.S. District Court - Eastern District