Introduction Occasionally, intellectual property owners find themselves doing battle in proceedings conducted before boards administered by USPTO, rather than in the court system, such as in cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), in which a trademark owner petitions to cancel another’s federal trademark registration. […]
The Northern District of Georgia is the forum for several new trademark and copyright disputes, which are summarized below: Huddle House trademark case removed from Georgia Superior Court On September 17, 2012, defendants Two Views, Inc., John Bartholomew, and Elizabeth Bartholomew (collectively, “Two Views”), all of Caswell Beach, […]
On September 24, 2012, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia issued an order dismissing a cyberpiracy claim under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”) asserted against a defendant corporation. However, the ACPA claim against individual defendants will remain in the case, at least for the time […]
If you are the creator or owner of a “foreign work” — one first published outside of the United States — and decide to enforce the copyright within the United States, be prepared. First, you may want to ensure that you understand the “esoteric” meaning of “published” as […]
Patent cases have been filed in fairly close succession to one another in the Atlanta Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Each complaint contains allegations of willful patent infringement. UPS Sued Over Patent Relating to Method for Providing Notification of Express Mail […]
On September 20, 2012, two trademark lawsuits were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, providing our first occasion for covering events in that court since the launch of this blog in early July 2012. One case generated publicity even before it was filed. Virginia’s Regent […]
What do hip-hop tracks, Christmas-themed works, and vampires have in common? Usually not much, but they are all subjects of copyright cases recently filed in the Atlanta Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Three complaint filings occurred within three days of one another. Soulja Boy’s […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has issued its ruling in a trademark dispute between two competing manufacturers of baffle boxes — stormwater filtration devices that “remove debris, trash, oil and other pollutants from stormwater before the stormwater reaches lakes, rivers, and streams.”[1] The Court […]
Religious orders both tracing their lineage to the island of Malta, and using “Malta” in their names, are waging a trademark battle that resulted in a September 11, 2012 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressing the defense of trademark fraud, the multi-factor […]
On August 31, 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an eagerly-anticipated decision regarding the doctrine of inducement to infringe a patent method claim. The appeal, decided en banc (by all the judges on the court), resolved two different cases involving closely similar issues […]
Georgia IP Litigation 