Brand Protection Resources

Practice Guides

In-depth coverage of our core practice areas — each guide brings together foundational concepts, enforcement strategy, and current developments in one place.

In Development

Design Patent Practice Guide

Comprehensive coverage of design patent law and enforcement — from the ordinary observer infringement standard and § 289 total profits damages, to prosecution strategy, ITC proceedings, and the latest Federal Circuit developments. Built for brand owners who compete on product appearance.

→ Design Patents and Enforcement Full guide coming soon

In Development

Trademark Practice Guide

End-to-end coverage of trademark and trade dress enforcement — likelihood of confusion analysis, dilution, trade dress protection, TTAB proceedings, and federal litigation strategy. For brand owners managing marks across channels and markets.

→ Trademark and Trade Dress Infringement Full guide coming soon

Reference Library

Foundational reference pages covering the core legal tools available to brand owners.

Trademark & Trade Dress

→Trademark and Trade Dress Infringement What trademarks and trade dress protect, how infringement is assessed, and available remedies.
→False Advertising The Lanham Act framework for challenging misleading competitor claims — literally false vs. misleading.
→Unfair Competition Passing off, trade secret misappropriation, right of publicity, and deceptive commercial conduct.
→Cybersquatting and UDRP Proceedings The ACPA and UDRP frameworks for recovering domains registered in bad faith.

Design Patents

→Design Patents and Enforcement The ordinary observer standard, § 289 total profits, prosecution strategy, and ITC enforcement.

Enforcement Tools

→Online Marketplace Takedowns Platform IP complaint programs and when to escalate to litigation against persistent infringers.
→Customs Recordals and Criminal Referrals CBP recordation, ITC Section 337, and criminal referrals — stopping infringing goods at the border.

Year in Review

Annual summaries of significant trademark and design patent developments — key decisions, trends, and what they mean for brand owners.

Trademark & Trade Dress

2025 Annual Review
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- The Supreme Court clarified that disgorgement awards are limited to the profits of the named defendant, reinforcing the importance of naming all relevant entities in infringement suits.
- Courts continue refining the doctrinal boundaries of nontraditional trademarks, including color marks and digital assets such as NFTs.
- Trade dress plaintiffs must clearly articulate the specific elements of their asserted trade dress while plausibly alleging distinctiveness at the pleading stage.
- Courts are increasingly confronting disputes involving digital goods, online marketplaces, and emerging marketing trends such as "dupe" products.
- Brand owners should expect continued litigation around the boundaries of product imitation, private-label competition, and the intersection of trademark and trade dress protection.

Design Patents

2025 Annual Review
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- Courts are beginning to apply the Federal Circuit's LKQ framework for design patent obviousness, with early decisions showing that challengers must still present disciplined proof on analogous art, motivation to combine, and objective indicia.
- Prosecution arguments in design applications can now meaningfully limit enforcement through argument-based prosecution history estoppel.
- Priority claims from utility applications to design patents require clear disclosure of the specific claimed design configuration — generalized descriptions of variations may not suffice.
- District courts continue to resolve some design patent disputes at summary judgment where the overall visual impression of the accused design is plainly dissimilar.
- Procedural changes at the PTAB have made administrative challenges to design patents materially harder, reinforcing their value as enforcement tools particularly in cases involving imported consumer products.