Emily Rebecca Hush

is an associate in Debevoise & Plimpton’s Litigation Department. Ms. Hush joined Debevoise in 2018. She received a J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2018, where she was Head Articles Editor of the Columbia Journal of European Law and a James Kent Scholar. Ms. Hush earned a B. Mus. with Distinction for Outstanding Achievement from McGill University in 2011. She is fluent in French and Spanish. Emily is a member of the 2019 Class of the New York City Environmental Law Leadership Institute and a member of the New York City Bar Association Environmental Law Committee.

For More information or to contact Emily, please visit her Firm Profile Page.

Recent Articles by Emily Rebecca Hush

Ninth Circuit Set to Clarify Aesthetic Functionality Doctrine

A case now pending before the Ninth Circuit, LTTB LLC v. Redbubble, Inc., Docket No. 19-16464, has the potential to clarify the controversial doctrine of aesthetic functionality. Aesthetic functionality has puzzled courts for decades. Particularly before the U.S. Supreme Court issued its modern guidance on functionality in Inwood Labs., Inc. v. Ives Labs., Inc., 456 U.S. 844 (1982); TrafFix Devices v. Mktg. Displays, Inc., 532 U.S. 26 (2001), and Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Prods. Co., 514 U.S. 159 (2d Cir. 2009), courts struggled with how to apply the aesthetic functionality doctrine and issued opinions that, in some instances, muddied the already murky aesthetic functionality waters. Perhaps the most notorious aesthetic functionality case is International Order of Job’s Daughters v. Lindeburg & Co., 633 F.2d 912 (9th Cir. 1980), a case that many observers believed to be abrogated by subsequent Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit opinions but that has recently continued to wreak havoc on trademark law.

January 17, 2020

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