Weekly IP Buzz for the Week Ending March 6, 2020

March 9, 2020 Darin M. Klemchuk

In this week's post, we see that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has appealed to the Supreme Court over whether companies may register generic terms combined with .com. Federal appeals court have sided with the applicant Booking.com.

Also, an overview of eCommerce and Internet Business law.

Courts Divided Over .Com Trademark Registrations

The United States Patent and Trademark Office has appealed to the Supreme Court after its ruling that Booking.com could not register a trademark for BOOKING.COM. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Booking.com’s application for a trademark based on grounds that the registration was attempting to register generic words, “booking” and “.com”.

In response to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s refusal to allow the registration, Booking.com argued that its brand is recognizable enough to warrant trademark protection. As trademarks have historically been awarded to protect consumers from brand confusion, Booking.com has also argued that approval of its application for booking.com would be in the public’s best interest as it would prevent others from palming off the goodwill established by its brand.

Other well-known brands such as Salesforce and Home Depot have also filed friends-of-the-court briefs in support of Booking.com. The companies argue that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s stance is too strict and could result in the cancellation or rejection of several worthy trademarks. As such, the companies argue that the trademark applications should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Read the full article here.

Overview of eCommerce and Internet Business Law

Each year a larger percentage of business is conducted over the web, and today’s online companies face a multitude of legal issues related to their online presence, and as they conduct business over the Internet. These unique and novel issues have given rise to the emerging legal field of eCommerce and Internet Business law.

Internet Business law relates to those unique legal issues and challenges presented by all companies with any sort of web presence, including issues relating to their company website, blogs, social media, and related agreements with designers, web and software developers, web hosts and advertisers.

While all companies with any sort of web presence should address Internet business legal issues, eCommerce companies have additional legal issues to identify and address. eCommerce companies are those companies who not only have a web presence, but also buy and sell products or services over the web. The added elements of commercial transactions, such as payment and delivery terms, warranties, etc., are in addition to the Internet Business law issues described above.