Posts Tagged: "Trademark Act"

TTAB Agrees with Parents Everywhere: Children do not hold the Control—Noble House v. Floorco

Subsidiaries of larger companies who are preparing to file a trademark application may want to think twice before deciding who to list as the Applicant. In April 2016, The United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) issued a precedential decision canceling the trademark registration of a subsidiary because the parent company was the only one using the mark… Given the outcome of this cancellation action, companies with multiple entities should be on alert. Companies should first confirm that the entity actually using and controlling the mark is the one listed on the registration. If not, to avoid cancellation of the trademark, the entities should consider entering into a trademark license or an assignment.

Trademark Tea Leaves: Balancing Product Secrecy with Public Trademark Registration

Among the most promising tech tea leaves product launch predictors rely on are publicly available applications and registrations for intellectual property. Given the importance of product launches and the proliferation of speculation surrounding them, many of the world’s highest profile companies – particularly tech darlings like Apple and Google – have sought ways to balance IP protection, its corresponding public disclosure requirements, and their desires to keep new products “secret” before they are formally announced. The result has been a growing trend of U.S.-based companies relying on earlier foreign trademark applications as the basis for later U.S. applications, a process that is provided for under the Trademark Act.