Supreme Court rules trademark agency ruling sufficient ground for issue preclusion News
Supreme Court rules trademark agency ruling sufficient ground for issue preclusion

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court on Tuesday held [opinion, PDF] in a 7-2 decision that a ruling from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) [official website] may be sufficient to establish issue preclusion in a patent dispute. The case of B&B Hardware, Inc. v. Hargis Industries, Inc. [SCOTUSblog docket] centers around the similarity of a trademark name. Hargis attempted to register a trademark for a sealing fastener under the name “sealtite” with the TTAB, pursuant to the Lanham Act [text]. B&B challenged the trademark registration on the grounds it was too similar to their own trademark for sealing fastener under the name “sealtight.” B&B argued the similarity of the two names would cause confusion. The TTAB agreed and did not allow Hargis to register its trademark. The dispute led to a patent infringement suit in federal district court, where B&B claimed Hargis was precluded from contesting the likelihood of confusion because of TTAB’s decision on the matter. The Court agreed with B&B, holding that as long as the other ordinary elements of issue preclusion are met, when the usages adjudicated by the TTAB are materially the same as those before a district court, issue preclusion should apply.

Tuesday’s decision reverses the ruling [opinion, PDF] from the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit [official website], which affirmed the district court opinion below. The court heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] in this case in December.

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