Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Space Force - Boots on the Moon ™

How for some lighter news. The recent Netflix comedy series, "Space Force" Will likely face off against the Trump administration over trademark issues. Masterfully released around the same time as Donald Trump's hilarious space force announcement, there are questions around trademark use of the series vs. the military department. https://lawandcrime.com/opinion/if-trump-administration-sues-netflix-over-trademark-for-space-force-itll-probably-lose/ The question will likely surround a debate on what everyone is worried about--money. Who gets naming rights for merchandise to be specific. Trademarks are filed under NICE classifications and usually there's little overlap between a TV show and a branch of government. If Netflix overstepped their bounds and tried to do a grab-all across all NICE classes, then this will very likely be defeated. In US trademark law it's first to use, not first to file, so as long as the US government can demonstrate that they were using this term before the series, there should be no problem in having it invalidated.

Friday, June 5, 2020

USSC Can Update ™ Law for WWW

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether marks that combine an arguably generic term with .com are protectable under U.S. trademark law. Ropes & Gray attorneys suggest that such marks should be protectable upon a showing of acquired distinctiveness, and that such a result would harmonize trademark law with a modern understanding of domain names and the internet.
More her: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/insight-the-supreme-court-can-bring-trademark-law-into-the-com-age