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Full-Text Articles in Law
Patent Trolls, Nuisance Suits, And The Federal Trade Commission, Matthew Spitzer
Patent Trolls, Nuisance Suits, And The Federal Trade Commission, Matthew Spitzer
North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology
The Federal Trade Commission’s (“FTC’s”) Patent Assertion Entity Activity Report (“The Report”) includes a path-breaking collection of data. The Report was compiled with the object of changing policy, both in Congress and before the courts. Because of the FTC’s ability to force businesses and individuals to provide information, a power that no ordinary researcher possesses, the FTC has amassed a data set that can potentially be of great value. For example, the Report’s description of litigation Patent Assertion Entities’ (“PAEs”) and portfolio PAEs’ structure and behavior is, although not entirely new, very instructive. Unfortunately, the FTC made analytical errors that …
Beware The Trademark Echo Chamber: Why Federal Courts Should Not Defer To Uspto Decisions, Deborah R. Gerhardt
Beware The Trademark Echo Chamber: Why Federal Courts Should Not Defer To Uspto Decisions, Deborah R. Gerhardt
Faculty Publications
This Article explains why federal courts should not defer to United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademark decisions. Under United States trademark law, actual use of a mark on specific goods or services is required to support federal trademark registration. The USPTO processes a tremendous volume of applications to register trademarks. In order to do so expeditiously, trademark examiners use heuristics drawn from past USPTO registration data. While markets continually change, each trademark registration is updated at five or ten-year renewal intervals. Accordingly, much of the data does not reflect current market use. A recent audit established that many …