Question: If Marty Schwimmer, John Welch, and LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® all agree on something — besides Meet the Bloggers — how could it be wrong? Answer: If the Fourth Circuit says it’s wrong. Question Number Two: What if Marty, John and Ron have the Second Circuit on their side? Answer Number Two: Well, the Fourth has the Ninth on its side… plus McCarthy. Now what? What, of course, is the doctrine of famous marks, otherwise known as the doctrine of well-known marks. And although I’ve thrown my name in there, I have no real dog in the fight, save this snarky old blog post in which I opined that, in ITC Limited v. Punchgini, Inc., 482 F.3d 135 (2nd Cir. 2007), the Second got it right, damned right, when, upholding the trial court’s reversal of the TTAB, explained as follows: [T]he “famous mark” doctrine is . . . a . . . “legal concept under which a…
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