Tag: Lanham Act

With the recent Seattle Seahawks Super Bowl win, mention of the “12th Man” has been in the news for a number of weeks. Surprisingly, Seattle does not have ownership of this mark. The actual owner, Texas A&M University, has been very aggressive in policing its mark. Texas A&M registered the marks “12TH

Foamation is the company to blame for the flood of the Cheesehead products commonly enjoyed by Green Bay Packer fans. But soon they may not be the only one as the “essence” of its products has failed to achieve trademark protection. According to the company’s website, the idea for the Cheesehead novelty

DKG Enterprises, Inc., a company that runs a store called North Pole City in Oklahoma City, filed a trademark suit in the Western District of Oklahoma on Sept. 9, 2013 against Hallmark Cards, Inc. and Hallmark Licensing, LLC. North Pole City has been in existence in Oklahoma City since the early 1990s

Under the Lanham Act, which provides the situations in which a mark can be registered, there are also a number of prohibitions on registration. See Lanham Act § 2(a), 15 U.S.C. § 1052(a). One such bar on registration is a mark that disparages a person, institution, belief, or national symbol—and Native Americans

One key aspect of protecting a trademark is policing the mark. A failure to police a mark may render the mark owner’s trademark unprotectable if another party begins infringing the mark without recourse, especially if the activity goes on unchallenged for a long period of time. However, a recent ruling by the