Year: 2020

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a rule that a proposed trademark consisting of a generic term (e.g. “computer” for computers) and a generic top-level domain (“TLD”) (like .com) is automatically generic. That decision was previously blogged about here: https://t-rexlaw.com/supreme-court-rules-booking-dot-yeah/, and the decision looked closely at whether the domain name Booking.com was intrinsically…

Trying to register a trademark for cannabis-related goods and services? Be careful what you apply for. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) recently issued a decision that continues the trend of not allowing registration of trademarks that cover cannabis-related goods or services. On a basic level, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) refuses…

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) released a 2020 update on women as inventor/patentees, which discusses data collected on the number and percentage of women listed as inventors for U.S. patents. The report was a followup to a 2019 report and includes additional data based on nearly one (1) million issued patents and…

Books.com. Computers.com. Mattresses.com. What do all of these domain names have in common? Well, apparently they are all now eligible for trademark protection according to the Supreme Court’s latest ruling in favor of Booking.com. The case considered whether a generic “.com” website can serve as an indicator of source such that the domain can create…