Where a tax preparation company offers similar services to those offered by the plaintiff, its use of the plaintiff’s trademark on a Facebook page and pamphlets had the tendency to confuse customers. Background Liberty Tax Service sues several defendants for ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge M. Hannah Lauck U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the plaintiff sought to patent a system and method for targeting specific content to individual users of a website, his application was properly denied because it was an abstract idea ineligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. ...

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

Where a plaintiff named “Huang Zhiyang” alleged he was the owner of domain name 45.com, but an intervenor named “Huang Zhiyang” provided evidence that he was the rightful owner, the court found that the intervenor was the real “Huang Zhiyang” ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Mark S. Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the owner of a Ted Nugent photograph sued Independent Journal Review for using the photo on its website, IJR prevailed on summary judgment because the picture was part of a commentary on issues of public concern, its commercial gain ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Anthony J. Trenga U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where rival ice cream truck owners dispute the right to use a banana split photograph, but the plaintiff didn’t register the photo until after the alleged infringement, it may not recover statutory damages or attorneys’ fees. However, because it did ...

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

Where the defendants were allowed to use “REJUVenate” on “[a]ll-purpose disinfectants for infection control and prevention and biosecurity,” but allegedly used it on cleaning products that fall within the scope of goods covered by the plaintiff’s preexisting “Rejuvenate” mark, the ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge James P. Jones U.S. District Court - Western District

Where an alleged cybersquatter who held the PRU.COM domain name intended to divert customers from Prudential Insurance Company or wanted a six-figure payment for the name, and it had registered other domain names evidencing bad faith, PRU.COM was ordered transferred ...

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

Although a prevailing party can ordinarily recover its expert fees as part of its bill of costs, a unique statute requires an applicant appealing an adverse trademark decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, in federal ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where there was “unrebutted” and “convincing” evidence that the defendant intended to use its trademark during a period when it was allegedly abandoned, there was no basis to set aside the decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, or ...

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

Where the American Inventors Protection Act allows an extension of the patent term where a district court reverses an adverse determination of patentability, but the district court here simply rejected one adverse finding, the applicant was not entitled to a ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property Judge Leonie M. Brinkema U.S. District Court - Eastern District