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Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's View of Parodies
While most trademark-related lawyers are familiar with the "Bad Spaniels" and "Chewy Vuitton" federal court decisions on trademark parody, decisions by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) on trademark parody marks are rarely examined.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit determined that "Chewy Vuitton" dog toys effectively parodied the iconic "Louis Vuitton" luxury handbags. See, Louis Vuitton Malletier v. Haute Diggity Dog, 507 F.3d 252 (4th Cir. 2007). The court found no likelihood of confusion, emphasizing that "an effective parody will actually diminish the likelihood of confusion." Over a decade later, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that the First Amendment does not grant trademark parodies a safe harbor from infringement claims. See, Jack Daniel's Properties Inc. v. VIP Products LLC, 599 U.S. 140 (2023).
But how does the TTAB evaluate applications for registration of parody marks? To analyze this issue, we conducted a search of all TTAB proceedings discussing "parody." Subsequently, we narrowed the results to include only parodies being used as a "source identifier" — indicating that the parody serves as "a designation of source for the person's own goods or services." See, DC Comics v. Gotham City Networking, 2012 TTAB LEXIS 196, at * 11.
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