Alt Legal Blog

Latest Blog Posts

• Failure to Function: Ornamental Refusals

  Jeffrey Turben  |  May 26, 2021 11 min read

  Ornamental refusals are on the rise—with the USPTO issuing upwards of 50 ornamental refusals on a single day. The refusal stems from the inherent nature of the mark its...

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• Failure to Function – Informational Matters, Widely Used Messages, and Religious Text

  Jeffrey Turben  |  May 26, 2021 10 min read

  If an applied-for mark mostly or exclusively conveys information about a product or service, the mark is considered merely informational matter and will be refused based ...

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• Alt Legal IP News – Issue #238

  Bri Van Til  |  May 05, 2021 2 min read

  Chanel and Huawei went to court to see who owns interlocking Cs. CNIPA has apparently published the passport details of thousands of foreign applicants, including small b...

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• Alt Legal IP News – Issue #221

  Bri Van Til  |  January 06, 2021 2 min read

  If year-end retrospectives are your thing, here are The Fashion Law's favorite reads from 2020, the EFF's list of "bad takedowns" from 2020, and IP Watchdog's list of top...

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• What’s Your Major Malfunction?: Breaking Down the USPTO’s Strange New Breed of Failure to Function Refusals

  John S. Miranda  |  December 24, 2020 5 min read

  The past several years have seen significant developments in the practice and procedure of the USPTO's trademark examination corps. Between the U.S. counsel rule, stricte...

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• Alt Legal IP News – Issue #218

  Bri Van Til  |  December 09, 2020 2 min read

  If you're looking for trademark swag, check out the new Alt Legal Trademarket. More items will be released soon, and all proceeds go to The Playing Field Project, a worth...

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