North Carolina Lawyers Weekly

The founder of the defendant-Dutch software company learned of the plaintiff-North Carolina software company’s product and reached into North Carolina to initiate a deal between the two companies. The companies entered into an oral contract that was to be substantially ...

Tagged with: Intellectual Property

A breakaway faction of a church may not continue to use the church’s name to solicit donations or to contract with third parties. The right to use the name Wakefield Missionary Baptist Church inheres in Wakefield Missionary Baptist Church, Inc., ...

Where French trial and appellate courts previously declared the French Republic, and not a California company, is the rightful owner of the domain name France.com, the French Republic was immune from France.com’s trademark and cybersquatting suit. Background In 1994, a ...

Where a party can appeal an initial decision of the Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to either the Federal Circuit or district court, and the Federal Circuit remands to the Trademark Board which issues a second ...

Where a defendant that was sued for unfair competition under the Lanham Act argued the suit was filed too late, because a § 43(a) claim is equitable in nature, the affirmative defense of laches, rather than statute of limitations, was ...

Where NIKE stopped an advertising campaign after the district court found it infringed on Fleet Feet’s trademarks, NIKE’s cessation of the campaign mooted its appeal of the preliminary injunction. Background In 2019, NIKE Inc., NIKE USA Inc. and NIKE Retail ...

Although a website operator began using “ipad” three years before Apple released its iPad in 2010, because Apple acquired use of the mark from another company that predated the website operator’s use, the mark obtained secondary meaning and Apple qualified ...

In order to register their antimicrobial products with the Environmental Protection Agency, plaintiffs were required to turn over certain trade secrets to the EPA. Defendants argue that, when information is submitted to the EPA in an application for product registration, ...

Where the shape and color scheme of a chicken feeder served a functional purpose, the feeder was ineligible for trade dress protection. Background In this trade dress infringement case, CTB Inc. appeals rulings granting summary judgment in favor of Hog ...

Where the district court’s conclusions that one party was prevailing and that this case was “exceptional” under the Lanham Act were both rejected, an award of attorneys’ fees was reversed. Background Citi Trends Inc. filed a declaratory judgement action against ...