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Alleging sponsorship/endorsement confusion can't defeat clear nominative fair use

43(B)log

It does so at the Rose Bowl Stadium under three contracts with Pasadena, including a Master License Agreement, Trademark Agreement, and Trademark Consent Agreement. Under these agreements, PTRA is the exclusive owner of the Rose Bowl Game trademark and owns the mark for use in connection with the annual game.

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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. Cold Steel Inc., 2023 WL 2372059, No. 3d at 1177.

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Using dominant competitor's part names/numbers for comparison isn't false advertising, TM infringement, or (c) infringement

43(B)log

15, 2023) Simpson sued its competitor MiTek for using Simpson part numbers for structural connectors/fasteners for use in the construction industry in its catalogs/other promotional material; the court here, after a nonjury trial before the magistrate judge, rather comprehensively rejects its false advertising, trademark, and copyright claims. (It

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TM complainant fails to sink its teeth into unrelated false advertising claims

43(B)log

Unsurprisingly, the trademark claims survive a motion to dismiss, but associated false advertising claims don’t. VFB owns several trademark registrations including “Vampire,” specifically for wine and pre-mixed alcoholic beverages other than beer, and “Vampyre,” specifically for spirits.

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Top Trademark Trends of 2022

Erik K Pelton

The year saw many trademark stories in the news as backlogs continued at the USPTO even while application filing numbers dropped from their all time highs during the two previous years. Here are the biggest trademark stories of 2022 that we have been following at EMP&A. Celebrity trademark messes. Queen of Christmas.

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TM infringement and false advertising claims related to putative open source software "fork" succeed

43(B)log

It has more than 400 commercial customers, including global enterprises such as Walmart, Comcast, Cisco, and eBay, and also does substantial business with government agencies, including US agencies. It has trademark registrations for the word mark “NEO4J.”

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Year in Review: The Briefing’s Top 3 Podcast Episodes in 2023

The IP Law Blog

Weintraub Tobin’s Intellectual Property podcast, The Briefing , published nearly 50 episodes this year covering a variety of IP issues relating to trademark, copyright, and entertainment law. 3: What Now for Fair Use After Warhol v. As we look back, we want to share The Briefing’s most popular episodes in 2023.