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The Seventh Circuit’S Approach To Deterring The Trademark Troll: Say Goodbye To Your Registration And Pay The Costs Of Litigation, Anna B. Folgers

Seventh Circuit Review

It is axiomatic that trademark rights are acquired through commercial use and not registration. This requirement, however, has failed to deter the trademark troll, who adopts, registers and warehouses a mark without the intent to use of the trademark himself, but to use his trademark registration to extort licensing fees out of innocent parties who make rightful use of the mark. This practice runs contrary to the statutory mandate of the Lanham Act and the policies that trademark law was designed to serve. Recently, the Seventh Circuit had the opportunity to rule on this issue when one such trademark entrepreneur …