Tag Archives: trademark

New book chapter on advertising, TM, and antitrust

Posted on July 16, 2025 by rtushnet

Misleading advertising as a matter of unfair competition law  Graeme B Dinwoodie and Ansgar Ohly (eds), Research Handbook on Unfair Competition and Passing Off (Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2026) Abstract The prohibition of false and misleading advertising should be the prototypical … Continue reading →

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breast pump rules: Think Green’s trade dress claims against Medela proceed to trial

Posted on July 7, 2025 by rtushnet

Think Green Ltd. v. Medela AG, 2025 WL 1826137, No. 21 CV 5445 (N.D. Ill. Jul. 2, 2025) Think Green sued Medela for infringing its trade dress in its breast pump, as well as false advertising claims that were quickly … Continue reading →

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5th Circuit agrees that joint TM owners can’t sue each other under any Lanham Act theory

Posted on July 4, 2025 by rtushnet

Reed v. Marshall, — F.4th —-, 2025 WL 1822673, No. 24-20198 (5th Cir. Jul. 2, 2025) Jade, an R&B, hip hop, and soul vocal group, rose to prominence in the 1990s. Jade disbanded in 1995, when the members began pursuing … Continue reading →

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Scotts loses trade dress claim over green & gold for Miracle-Gro

Posted on July 1, 2025 by rtushnet

Scotts Co. v. Procter & Gamble Co., 2025 WL 1779167, No. 2:24-cv-4199 (S.D. Ohio Jun. 27, 2025) A different Scotts trade dress claim than the one I blogged last year. While it’s hard to get rid of trademark claims on … Continue reading →

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parties’ marketing to Spanish speakers in SoCal is not meaningful marketing overlap

Posted on June 25, 2025 by rtushnet

Olé Mexican Foods Inc. v. SK Market Inc., 2025 WL 1717646, No. 2:25-cv-01877-WLH-BFM (C.D. Cal. May 13, 2025) Courts have already converged on “everybody uses the internet to market, so that’s not a significant overlap.” This is the first decision … Continue reading →

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Deadline extended to Friday: TM scholarship roundtable

Posted on May 28, 2025 by rtushnet

  TM scholarship roundtable The Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable co-hosted by Harvard, NYU, and the University of Pennsylvania will take place this year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. The Roundtable is designed to be a … Continue reading →

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Reminder: TM scholarship roundtable

Posted on May 20, 2025 by rtushnet

The Trademark and Unfair Competition Scholarship Roundtable co-hosted by Harvard, NYU, and the University of Pennsylvania will take place this year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. The Roundtable is designed to be a forum for the discussion … Continue reading →

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Sixteenth Trademark Scholars’ Roundtable Session 4: How We Got to Trademark Use 2.0

Posted on May 3, 2025 by rtushnet

Robert Burrell: use in Commonwealth systems came from strict liability for double identity—once that was extended to advertising, there are a whole lot of nonconfusing/beneficial uses of marks in advertising. TM use was brought in as a safety valve to … Continue reading →

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Sixteenth Trademark Scholars’ Roundtable Session 3 continued

Posted on May 3, 2025 by rtushnet

Midpoint discussant: Laura Heymann Is the goal consistency? Is the goal limiting principles that can end a case early? Is use the right tool? Is it a proxy? To what extent should we accept the rest of the landscape as … Continue reading →

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Sixteenth Trademark Scholars’ Roundtable Session 3: What is the Significance of Trademark Use 2.0?

Posted on May 2, 2025 by rtushnet

Introduction: Mark Lemley: What VIP actually says: Rogers test insulates from liability when use is only non-source identifying. Cardinal sin is to undermine source-indicating functioning: LV modification of mark in suitcase market implicates the core concerns of TM law. That … Continue reading →

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