Posts in Trademark

U.S. companies planning to enter Nigeria typically build a careful playbook for market research, distribution, hiring, and regulatory compliance. Intellectual property is often the item furthest down that list, treated as paperwork to handle once commercial activity is already underway. That sequencing is backwards, and it is worth understanding why.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction in a decision on August 13 barring Meritain Health, Inc., ProAct, Inc., Rx Valet, LLC, Advanced Pharmacy, LLC, Aqua Enterprise Inc., and Gregory Santulli from importing, advertising, or facilitating the importation of foreign-market Gilead Sciences, Inc. medications into the United States. Judge Agee wrote the opinion on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, joined by Judge Harris and Senior Judge Keenan.

As AI assistants take over product discovery and purchase, the likelihood of confusion test is losing the consumer it was built around. And brands are therefore losing their primary line of defense. For decades, building a brand has meant the same, patient work. You develop a differentiated story, then bring it to life everywhere a customer might meet it: Advertising; digital; packaging; product design; customer care. Every piece is guided by consumer insight, a hard-won read on what a person feels at each stage of the journey, from the first moment of awareness through consideration to the purchase itself.

On August 4, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) chose to issue a precedential opinion formally holding that there is no “presumption of irreparable harm” in preliminary injunction proceedings in patent cases. The court acknowledged that this conclusion should have been apparent from the 2006 Supreme Court decision in eBay  Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C., 547 U.S. 388, 393-94 (2006).

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a published ruling reversing the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona’s entry of permanent injunction for distiller Jack Daniel’s in the long-running trademark case involving VIP Products’ Bad Spaniels dog toy. This latest chapter in the decade-plus-long case remands the decision back to the district court with orders to enter judgment in favor of defendant VIP Products after finding that Jack Daniel’s did not meet its burden to show dilution by tarnishment.

Yesterday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued its latest study detailing the economic contributions of industries heavily reliant upon intellectual property rights, concluding that such IP-intensive industries contributed 44% of the United States’ entire gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024. Despite several key findings reflecting the rising value of IP rights to employee wages and job creation, the USPTO’s report noted significant trade deficits run by the United States relative to their foreign counterparts in commodity exports across several IP-intensive industries.

On December 31, 1959, Calixto Lopez led armed men into the Arechabala family’s rum distillery in Cárdenas, Cuba. The family had made rum there since 1878, building Havana Club into a brand whose English name reflected its success in the U.S. market. According to testimony Ramón Arechabala gave the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2004, Lopez pointed a machine gun at him and announced he was taking over as “Pepe,” the nickname of the company’s president and Ramón’s uncle. The family’s rum business now belonged to the Cuban government.

Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi in the Northern District of California, San Jose Division, last week granted in part and denied in part a professional trumpet player’s motion for leave to amend his complaint that challenges Apple’s APPLE trademark for entertainment services. Judge DeMarchi concluded that the standard had only been met in limited respects and ruled that Bertini may pursue two narrow fraud claims, while his remaining theories were rejected.

Trademark law has traditionally protected the most recognizable aspects of a brand: names, logos, and slogans. Increasingly, however, companies are asking courts to protect something far less tangible, the overall identity consumers associate with a brand. Colors, product aesthetics, marketing campaigns, and even the timing of a product launch have become valuable commercial assets in their own right. The recently filed lawsuit between 7-Eleven and Nike illustrates how modern trademark disputes are moving beyond conventional source identifiers and into the realm of brand identity itself.

The United States government, on behalf of President Donald Trump, abandoned its application to register the trademark BOARD OF PEACE on July 3, after filing an express abandonment, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) documents. The application was a source of controversy earlier this year, when Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to USPTO Director John Squires pressing him to answer questions about the Office’s role in filing the trademark application on behalf of the Trump Administration.

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet held a hearing on Tuesday, titled “A Midlife Crisis? IP and the Internet After 40.” The hearing examined the changes that have occurred over the last four decades of the internet and featured witnesses including celebrities, academics and computer and media experts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), in a Per Curiam opinion, today affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) ruling that the mark MON AMI is confusingly similar to the previously registered mark, AMÌ, and that MON AMI could therefore not be registered.

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for writ of certiorari filed by nitro cold brew coffee company RiseandShine Corporation, doing business as RISE Brewing, challenging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s application of the likelihood of confusion test in RiseandShine’s trademark infringement case against PepsiCo’s “Mtn DEW Rise Energy” energy drinks. Going against the U.S. Solicitor General’s calls to deny cert even though the Second Circuit erred in treating a trademark’s inherent strength as a question of law, the Supreme Court will answer whether this sub-factor of the consumer confusion analysis presents questions of fact that should be submitted to a jury.

A trademark dispute between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“the Church”) and the Mormon Stories Podcast (“the Podcast”) has  this week become a broader fight over the Church’s Mormon-related trademark portfolio. The Church’s complaint, filed on April 17, 2026, alleged that the Podcast’s name, branding, and use of Church imagery create a likelihood of confusion regarding whether the Podcast is actually affiliated with the Church. Meanwhile, the Podcast’s answer to the complaint and counterclaim goes further. Rather than merely denying infringement, the Podcast is now seeking cancellation of multiple Mormon-related trademarks owned by the Church..