John Welch is a trademark and copyright counsel at Wolf Greenfield. He has represented clients in scores of patent, trademark, copyright lawsuits across the country.
John specializes in cases before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), and speaks and writes frequently regarding that tribunal. His blog, The TTABlog, is highly popular with the trademark community.
In this episode of IP Talk with Wolf Greenfield, John Welch provides a summary of the Board, takes a look at interesting trends and cases and offers a review of the recently enacted Trademark Modernization Act. Here are some of the highlights:
00:49 - An overview of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB)
02:22 - Why do parties go to the TTAB instead of federal court?
03:59 - Explaining the high affirmance rate for likelihood-of-confusion and mere descriptiveness cases
04:55 - TTAB trends in 2021
06:19 - Why has there been an increase in failure to function cases?
07:15 - Interesting cases on the horizon
09:32 - Notable elements of the Trademark Modernization Act of 2020 (“TMA”)
12:39 - John’s popular TTABlog - keeping tabs on the TTAB since 2004