How You May Succeed In Registering An Affinity Mark Despite Another’s Identical Mark

The Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority, which dates back to 1898 and is popularly known as ZTA, was refused registration of ZTA for jewelry (claiming use since at least 1915) and clothing items (claiming use since at least 1940), despite its ownership of an existing 2001 registration of this mark for association services, because of a 2020 registration of ZTA for a variety of housewares and kitchen items owned by a Chinese company (claiming use […]

By | September 8th, 2022 ||

Retooling Intellectual Property Strategies To Weather Bear Markets

As economists warn of an imminent economic recession, companies should take the time now to consider their Intellectual Property (IP) strategies and determine how to preserve legal spend while simultaneously adding value to their IP portfolio.

With these considerations in mind, there are a few strategies that can be put in place early on to help recession-proof an IP strategy. This should include evaluating the company’s product roadmap to identify high-value assets, managing legal spend […]

By | September 5th, 2022 ||

Assignor Estoppel: When Can A Party Challenge A Patent They Sold?

In patent law, the doctrine of “assignor estoppel” refers to barring a party who assigned a patent from later challenging the validity of the patent. Assignor estoppel is an equitable doctrine that has been relied upon in order to prevent someone who has assigned the rights to a patent (or patent application) from later contending that what was assigned was, in fact, worthless. The doctrine has been applied to not just inventors, but also […]

By | July 13th, 2021 ||