{"id":267,"date":"2017-06-08T21:48:31","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T01:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=267"},"modified":"2017-06-12T07:39:38","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T11:39:38","slug":"ownership-of-a-trademark-follows-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Ownership of a Trademark Follows Use"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafc.uscourts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/opinions-orders\/16-2055.Opinion.6-6-2017.1.PDF\">Lyons v. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation<\/a>, [2016-2055](June 8, 2017), the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the TTAB cancelling Lyons&#8217; registration of the mark\u00a0THE\u00a0AMERICAN COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SPORTS\u00a0MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION. \u00a0Lyons participated in the organization of a committee under the auspices of the\u00a0 American Veterinary Medical<br \/>\nAssociation. using the name\u00a0THE\u00a0AMERICAN COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SPORTS\u00a0MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION. \u00a0A year after Lyons was dismissed from the committee, she sought and obtained registration of\u00a0THE\u00a0AMERICAN COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SPORTS\u00a0MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION on the Supplemental Register.<\/p>\n<p>The committee petitioned to cancel the Lyon&#8217;s registration based on priority of use and Lyons&#8217; fraud in procuring the registration. The cancellation was suspended during the pendency of a civil action between the parties in which Lyons alleged infringement of her registration. \u00a0The district court found that the mark had not acquired distinctiveness. but did not cancel the registration. \u00a0When the cancellation proceeding resumed, the Board concluded that Lyon&#8217;s application was void ab initio because she did not own the mark.<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Circuit said that\u00a0it was axiomatic in trademark law that ownership of a<br \/>\nmark is predicated on priority of use in commerce. \u00a0Thus, the Federal Circuit reasons,\u00a0registration by one who did not own the mark\u00a0at the time of filing renders the underlying application\u00a0void ab initio. The Federal Circuit agreed with the Board that Lyons did not own the mark, and approving the Board&#8217;s legal framework for evaluating ownership, which included\u00a0(1) the parties\u2019 objective\u00a0intentions or expectations; (2) who the public associates\u00a0with the mark; and (3) to whom the public looks to stand\u00a0behind the quality of goods or services offered under the\u00a0mark.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In\u00a0Lyons v. The American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, [2016-2055](June 8, 2017), the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision of the TTAB cancelling Lyons&#8217; registration of the mark\u00a0THE\u00a0AMERICAN COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SPORTS\u00a0MEDICINE AND REHABILITATION. \u00a0Lyons participated in the organization &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/?p=267\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ownership"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}