alerts & publications

Caution, Preclusion Ahead: The New TTAB Landscape

Partner David Marroso and counsel Megan K. Smith authored this article in Law360 concerning “issue preclusion” and how this doctrine has changed the landscape of the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. “A recent, slow-moving and relatively lightly discussed shift has upended this law and made it decidedly more risky to commence proceedings at the TTAB. Practitioners and trademark owners now must carefully decide whether to go to the TTAB at all because, once a trademark owner pulls that lever, certain rights may be irrevocably lost.”