November, 2016

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Difficulties Surround Marijuana Trademarks

Greenspoon Marder LLP

By: Sharon Urias, Esq. There has been a growing movement throughout the United States to legalize marijuana. This of course is being led by the states, not the Federal Government. And, regardless of what side of the issue you are on, the marijuana business no longer is predominately behind-the-scenes and conducted on street corners. Since the first state legalized the use of medical marijuana (California, via the Compassionate Use Act of 1996), the production and sale of marijuana increasingly h

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A Bigger Exception to the Rule? Attorneys’ Fee Awards in Trademark Cases

Shades of Gray

Traditionally, attorneys’ fees were notoriously difficult for a prevailing party to recover in a trademark action. The United States Supreme Court’s 2014 opinion in a patent case, Octane Fitness, LLC v. ICON Health & Fitness, Inc. , [1] relaxed the applicable standard in construing the Patent Act’s identical fee-shifting provision and will likely result in a lower bar to the recovery of fees in trademark disputes.

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Adidas Fights for Its Three Stripes

Greenspoon Marder LLP

By: Sharon Urias, Esq. Last week Adidas formally challenged world renowned soccer club FC Barcelona’s attempt at registering its three vertical red stripe design (three vertical red stripes with a blue background) that is part of the team’s crest. Adidas asserted that FC Barcelona’s design is confusingly similar in appearance and commercial impression to its well-known, often-enforced “three-stripe trademark.

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