Dennis Crouch's Patently-O: 1 new topics, including “Fighting for Peace and Love”

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Fighting for Peace and Love Posted: 20 Jul 2015 10:32 AM PDT Juice Generation v. GS Enterprises (Fed. Cir. 2015) Juice Generation has been seeking a registration on its mark “Peace Love and Juice” for its juice bar business but has been challenged by GSE who holds a family of marks with the phrase “Peace & Love” used in the restaurant business. The question for registration is whether the Juice Bar mark creates a likelihood of confusion with the GSE marks.  The Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB) found that the marks were too similar and thus could not both be registered. On appeal, however, the Federal Circuit has vacated that decision based upon its opinion that the TTAB should more thoroughly reevaluate the strength/weakness of GSE’s marks.  In particular, the court found that the TTAB should more fully consider the extent of third-party use of the Peace & Love phrase. The fact that a considerable number of third parties use similar marks was shown in uncontradicted testimony. In addition, "[a] real evidentiary value of third party registrations per se is to show the sense in which . . . a mark is used in ordinary parlance." 2 McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition § 11:90 (4th ed. 2015) (emphasis added). "Third party registrations are relevant to prove that some segment of the composite marks which both contesting parties use has a normally understood and well recognized descriptive or suggestive meaning, leading to the conclusion that that segment is relatively weak." Id. In its decision, the Federal Circuit repeatedly emphasized that the strength or weakness of a mark is not a binary question, but rather one that fits on a spectrum of possibilities.  Although a weaker mark can be registered and protected, its penumbra of power will be much narrower than would a stronger mark. “The Board here did not conduct an analysis of all evidence relevant to where on that spectrum GS's marks fall and the resulting effect on the overall likelihood-of-confusion determination.”

Patents Fuel the American Dream Posted: 20 Jul 2015 09:56 AM PDT The Partnership for American Innovation (Apple, Du Pont, Ford, GE, IBM, Microsoft, Pfizer, etc.) have put together a new, somewhat cheesy, video on how the patent system is driving innovation:

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