Amy Howe

Nov 8 2019

Justices grant government’s trademark petition

This afternoon the Supreme Court added one new case to its merits docket for the term, granting the federal government’s petition for review in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com. The case arose when Booking.com, which operates a website that allows customers to book travel and hotel accommodations, applied for a trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office refused to register the trademark, citing the Lanham Act’s ban on registration for generic terms. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that Booking.com is a protectable trademark, the federal government went to the Supreme Court. Today the justices agreed to weigh in on whether an online business’s addition of “.com” to an otherwise generic term can create a protectable trademark. The case will likely be argued in the spring, with a decision by late June.

More orders from today’s conference are expected on Tuesday, November 12, at 9:30 a.m.

This post is also published on SCOTUSblog.

Amy L Howe
Until September 2016, Amy served as the editor and reporter for SCOTUSblog, a blog devoted to coverage of the Supreme Court of the United States; she continues to serve as an independent contractor and reporter for SCOTUSblog. Before turning to full-time blogging, she served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and argued two cases there. From 2004 until 2011, she co-taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford Law School; from 2005 until 2013, she co-taught a similar class at Harvard Law School. She has also served as an adjunct professor at American University’s Washington College of Law and Vanderbilt Law School. Amy is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a master’s degree in Arab Studies and a law degree from Georgetown University.
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