Autodesk spent over two years building its Flow brand for visual effects and production management software. Then Google launched an identically named AI filmmaking tool and, according to Autodesk’s complaint, did so after providing assurances it wouldn’t. On February 6, 2026, Autodesk filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in US District Court for the Northern District … Read more
A California apparel company wants nearly $1 million back after losing a trademark battle over four words that have represented the US Army since 1778. The Appeal and What’s at Stake TWD, LLC owes Grunt Style nearly $1 million after a jury trial in the Northern District of Illinois. The damages totaled $739,500, plus $229,235.38 … Read more
Ten seconds. That’s how long it took crypto scammers to seize both the old GitHub organization and X account after Peter Steinberger released them during a forced rebrand. The Austrian developer, who founded PSPDFKit before selling to Insight Partners, had just built one of the fastest-growing open-source AI projects on the internet. Clawdbot had amassed … Read more
A German domain registrant moved fast. Netflix’s legal team moved smarter. Three days after the animated film KPop Demon Hunters premiered on Netflix, someone in Germany registered KPopDemonHunters.com. Now, that domain belongs to Netflix after a WIPO panel found the streaming giant had established common law trademark rights before the cybersquatter even clicked “register.” Three … Read more
When Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s autonomous “Cybercab” at the company’s “We, Robot” event on October 10, 2024, the announcement made headlines worldwide. But Tesla hadn’t filed a trademark application. Eighteen days later, a French beverage company called Unibev did. Now Tesla’s trademark application sits suspended at the USPTO, and the company that revolutionized the electric … Read more
A Pennsylvania artist who has operated under the name “Atelier Jolie” since 2021 is blocking Angelina Jolie’s USPTO trademark application for her high-profile New York fashion venture. The Opposition That Could Derail a Celebrity Fashion Launch Omnaia Jolie Abdou filed a formal opposition with the USPTO on July 10, 2024, targeting Angelina Jolie’s trademark application … Read more
Nike invented the Total 90 brand in 2000. In 2025, a Louisiana soccer coach is suing them for using it. Hugh Bartlett noticed something interesting in the USPTO database. Nike’s federal trademark registration for TOTAL 90 had been cancelled on April 19, 2019. The athletic giant had failed to file a Section 8 Declaration of … Read more
A California surf brand’s $100 million bet against Lady Gaga just crashed on First Amendment rocks. On December 15, 2025, US District Judge Fernando M. Olguin denied Lost Surfboards’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked merchandise sales tied to Lady Gaga’s “Mayhem” album and tour. The ruling landed a significant blow to … Read more
Christi Lower built Highline Spirits from scratch. The woman-owned Michigan distillery launched in 2021 with a whiskey brand and a name she trademarked before opening her first taproom. When Kate Upton’s celebrity-backed Vosa Spirits started selling canned vodka cocktails under the “High Line” name in May 2023, Lower faced a choice: accept the confusion or … Read more
When Beyond Meat and Dunkin’ Donuts launched their celebrity-studded national advertising campaign in 2019, they used a catchy slogan: “Great Taste, Plant-Based.” A small Philadelphia company had registered a nearly identical phrase four years earlier. That oversight just cost Beyond Meat $38.9 million. A Jury Verdict Six Years in the Making On November 24, 2025, … Read more
Six days after an Australian beach umbrella company received its USPTO registration certificate for “Swim Shady,” Eminem’s legal team filed a petition to cancel the mark. The rapper’s lawyers argued the name is “highly confusingly similar and/or legally identical in sight and sound” to his decades-old SLIM SHADY trademark. The company that started as “Slim … Read more
Jarrad Hewett’s Oklahoma underwear company just had its most profitable month after three years of building his brand around a cartoon squirrel holding acorns. Weeks later, Texas-based Buc-ee’s sent him a three-page cease and desist letter demanding he abandon the logo, stop using the colors red, yellow, and brown, eliminate all cartoon rodents from his … Read more
When Jaime Rogozinski created r/WallStreetBets in 2012, he coined the name and built a community that would eventually drive the 2021 GameStop short squeeze heard around the world. By the time Reddit banned him from the platform in April 2020 for violating self-promotion policies, the subreddit had reached 1 million subscribers. Rogozinski filed a federal … Read more
When All Elite Wrestling filed its trademark application for “AEW Shockwave” on September 6, 2024, the company likely anticipated a straightforward path to registration for what insiders believed would be a new television program. Instead, that filing triggered a federal trademark opposition that landed both AEW and the National Wrestling Alliance in a Trademark Trial … Read more
Imagine spending five years building a successful podcast brand around your own first name, only to have a toy company tell you that you can’t register it as a trademark. That’s exactly what’s happening to a DC podcaster in a legal battle that raises questions about corporate trademark power, common personal names, and how far … Read more
When a North Carolina coastal pool company thought it could sidestep a trademark dispute through legal maneuvering, a federal judge had other plans. On September 18, 2025, an Outer Banks-area pool and spa service provider learned that escaping trademark litigation isn’t as simple as filing the right motion. North Carolina’s Eastern District delivered a clear … Read more