Trademark Law - An Open-Source Casebook (v.6.0)

sixth Edition

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Trademark Law - An Open-Source Casebook (v.6.0)

Name: Trademark Law - An Open-Source Casebook (v.6.0)
Author: Barton Beebe

by Barton Beebe

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Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook is a free, “open” textbook designed for a four-credit trademark course, which is what I teach at NYU School of Law. Model syllabi for four-credit and three-credit courses are available in the Faculty Resources section of this website. All faculty teaching trademark law are welcome to access the Faculty Resources, including the faculty discussion forum, by becoming a registered user of the site. To register, write me at barton@bartonbeebe.com.

Conditions of Use and Copyright

The casebook is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. In slightly simpler terms, this means that you are free to copy, redistribute, and modify the casebook in part or whole in any format provided that (1) you do so only for non-commercial purposes, (2) you comply with the attribution principles of the license (credit the author, link to the license, and indicate if you’ve made any changes), and (3), in the case of modified versions of the casebook, you distribute any modifications under the same license.

The author(s) of this volume are not affiliated with Live.LawCarta.com in any manner.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

The History of U.S. Trademark Law

The Policy Justifications for Trademark Protection

Trademark Law Within the Larger Scheme of Intellectual Property Law

Chapter One Part I: Establishing Trademark Rights

1.1 - Trademark Distinctiveness

1.1.1 - Inherent Distinctiveness of Source and Acquired Distinctiveness of Source

1.1.2 - The Distinctiveness Analysis of Nonverbal Marks

1.2 - Bars to Protection

1.2.1 - Functionality

1.2.2 - Deceptive and Deceptively Misdescriptive Marks

1.2.3 - Marks that May Falsely Suggest a Connection

1.2.4 - Confusingly-Similar Marks Under Lanham Act § 2(d)

1.2.5 - Disparaging and Scandalous Marks

1.3 - Use in Commerce as a Prerequisite for Trademark Rights

1.3.1 - Use in Commerce as a Prerequisite for Federal Trademark Registration

1.3.2 - Use in Commerce as a Prerequisite for Unregistered Common Law Priority

1.4 - The Trademark Registration Process

1.4.1 - Benefits of Registration

1.4.2 - Lanham Act § 1(b) Intent to Use Applications and the Bona Fide Intent to Use Requirement

1.4.3 - Process of Registration

1.4.4 - Notice of Federal Registration

1.4.5 - The Madrid System

1.4.6 - Cancellation of Registration

1.4.7 - Incontestable Status and Park ‘N Fly

1.5 - The Territorial Extent of Trademark Rights

1.5.1 - The Territorial Extent of Rights in Registered Marks

1.5.2 - The Territorial Extent of Rights in Unregistered Marks

1.5.3 - National Borders and Trademark Rights

Chapter Two Part II: Trademark Infringement

2.1 - The Actionable Use Requirement

2.1.1 - Defendant’s “Use in Commerce”

2.1.2 - Defendant’s Use “in Connection with the Sale…of any Goods or Services”

2.2 - Confusion-Based Infringement

2.2.1 - The History of the Confusion-Based Cause of Action for Trademark Infringement

2.2.2 - Contemporary Applications of the Multifactor Test for the Likelihood of Confusion

2.2.3 - Further Examples of the Application of the Multifactor Test for the Likelihood of Confusion Test

2.2.4 - Survey Evidence and the Likelihood of Confusion

2.2.5 - “Sponsorship or Affiliation” Confusion

2.2.6 - Initial Interest Confusion

2.2.7 - Post-Sale Confusion

2.2.8 - Reverse Confusion

2.2.9 - Reverse Passing Off

2.2.10 - Lanham Act § 2(d) Confusion

2.3 - Trademark Dilution

2.3.1 - The Fame Requirement for Antidilution Protect

2.3.2 - Dilution by Blurring

2.3.3 - Dilution by Tarnishment

2.4 - Cybersquatting

2.4.1 - The Section 43(d) Prohibition Against Cybersquatting

2.4.2 - The Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy and the Uniform Rapid Suspension System

2.5 - Secondary Liability

Chapter Three Part III: Defenses to Trademark Infringement and Related Limitations on Trademark Rights

3.1 - Descriptive Fair Use

3.1.1 - Descriptive Fair Use and Consumer Confusion

3.1.2 - The Three-Step Test for Descriptive Fair Use

3.1.3 - Further Examples of Descriptive Fair Use Analyses

3.2 - Nominative Fair Use

3.2.1 - The Three-Step Test for Nominative Fair Use

3.2.2 - Further Examples of Nominative Fair Use Analyses

3.3 - Expressive Uses of Trademarks

3.3.1 - Expressive Uses and the Tests for Confusion and Dilution

3.3.2 - The Rogers v. Grimaldi Test for Unauthorized “Artistic” Uses

3.3.3 - Further Examples of Expressive Use Analyses

3.4 - Trademark Abandonment

3.4.1 - Abandonment Through Cessation of Use

3.4.2 - Abandonment Through Failure to Control Use

3.5 - Assignment in Gross

3.6 - The First Sale Doctrine

Chapter Four Part IV: False Advertising

4.1 - False Advertising Under the Lanham Act

4.1.1 - Literal Falsity

4.1.2 - Literal Falsity by Necessary Implication

4.1.3 - Puffery, Statements of Opinion, and Materiality

4.1.4 - Substantiation

4.2 - Endorsements, Testimonials, and Reviews

Chapter Five Part V: Right of Publicity

5.1 - State Right of Publicity Statutory Provisions

5.2 - Right of Publicity Case Law

Chapter Six Part VI: Remedies

6.1 - Injunctive Relief

6.2 - Plaintiff’s Damages and Defendant’s Profits

6.2.1 - Recovery of Defendant’s Profits

6.2.2 - Recovery of Plaintiff’s Damages

6.2.3 - Enhanced Damages

6.2.4 - The Notice Requirement for Registered Marks

6.3 - Corrective Advertising

6.4 - Attorney’s Fees

6.5 - Counterfeiting Remedies

6.6 - Federal Criminal Penalties for Counterfeiting