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Harpic v. Domex:Product disparagement or nominative fair use?

IP and Legal Filings

Introduction Advertising is an important strategy for a company to sell its products to the customer. Advertising generated awareness about a particular product in among the masses and the reaction of the masses decides the fate of the product. To increase their sales, often companies indulge themselves in comparative advertising.

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Harpic v. Domex Advertisement: Product Disparagement or Nominative Fair Use?

SpicyIP

Domex Advertisement: Product Disparagement or Nominative Fair Use? An image of the comparative advertisement launched by Domex, wherein Domex explicitly asks which toilet cleaner fights bad smell for longer and makes a tick mark against Domex, with Harpic as another option next to it. Pragya Jain. image from here ).

Fair Use 105
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TIL: “Texas Tamale” Is an Enforceable Trademark–Texas Tamale v. CPUSA2

Technology & Marketing Law Blog

This case hit my alerts because of its discussion about keyword advertising, but first, I have to digest how the court got there. In an April 2023 summary judgment ruling , the plaintiff established that it “possesses the legally protectable, incontestable trademarks TEXAS TAMALE and TEXAS TAMALE COMPANY.” ” Say what?

Trademark 101
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Not Everyone’s Cup of “Use” – The Changing Dynamics of “Trademark Use” and “Infringement” in Internet Advertising

SpicyIP

DRS , explaining the Court’s approach towards determining whether the use of a mark as a keyword will amount to trademark infringement or not. Last month we had a detailed post by Aditya Gupta on the DHC Division Bench order in Google v. Views expressed here are those of the author’s alone.

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Nominative fair use (maybe) and Amazon

43(B)log

I've recently seen two examples of the following phenomenon: off of Amazon, an advertiser uses images of its product with another well-known product, and they do go together, but on Amazon, the advertising is different. Anyone know if there's an Amazon policy driving this?

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"TM-compliant" ads not shown to be nominative fair use

43(B)log

14, 2023) Plaintiffs sued defendants for state and federal trademark infringement and related claims. Plaintiff WATL is allegedly the preeminent governing body and league for the sport of axe throwing and uses the trademark “WATL” to market and publicize the axe throwing league. Toyota, 610 F.3d 3d at 1177.

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Nominative fair use of a logo on a motion to dismiss: common sense has its day

43(B)log

14, 2023) I’ve been thinking a lot after Jack Daniel’s about the role of common sense in trademark. Judge Leval in scholarship, Trademark: Champion of Free Speech , 27 Colum. & Arts 187 (2004), and the Seventh Circuit in practice, are all about using common sense rather than doctrine to limit the scope of trademark rights.