Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Right of publicity question of the day, Minneapolis/purple edition 040
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 05/08/202611th Circuit is not particularly convincing in its conclusion that "battery tender" isn't generic, given that it uses the term as the name of the product category multiple times in its decision; next you will tell me that escalators don't actually escalate 031
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 30/06/2026Trademark/advertising law question of the day: draft the complaint by YT, Shopify, etc. www.404media.co/how-i-bought... 031
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 29/06/2026At the Mosaic District in Fairfax. Seems much more crowded than the fair downtown 020
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 29/06/2026Finishing up my Bryn Mawr blanket--that was an objectively unreasonable amount of double knitting but it came out well! 618713
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 27/06/2026The cottage, which made me wonder about Canadian architectural copyright 030
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Hmm, I wonder what the state board of tourism thinks of this? 092
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 12/06/2026For readers, CVS and they’re fine! Also some cute ones from a craft show. I have pairs scattered around house and office. Multiple places=less keeping track 120
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 12/06/2026I'd love to know if there are any applications to register this image as a mark for things that are related to, but not, bike computer brackets. (This is in fact a line drawing of the product inside.) 100
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 07/06/2026Can't find anything public on this bit of marketing for Widow's Bay; has Google done "did you mean" takeovers before? 060
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 25/05/2026Repost with the Russian agent who spies on your posts. 161
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 12/05/2026No--and it's worth noting (for anyone reading along without Ed's extensive knowledge) that the PTO sometimes does insist on 2(d) for realistic line drawings--screenshot from my slides, cites in alt text 100
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 11/05/2026I got most of my exams, so of course I finished a scarf & hat set, one of my favorite projects ever, instead of grading 5170
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 05/05/2026Pulled the specimen: it was a tag. This is Lettuce Turnip the Beet but with product design. Clearly a big thing these days. 111
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 09/04/2026Reminds me of another claim where the MTD was granted, Grazette v. Bitcoin of America, LLC, 2020 WL 6789352, No. 19-CV-4837 (MKB) (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 30, 2020) 020
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 08/04/2026Transformative work of the day, oldie but goodie 0369
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Barack Obama supports temporary redistricting in Virginia, but Republicans are sending out postcards using his name and an old (correct, but from the days when he thought he could unite us) quote to encourage voting against it + a current quote deceptively shortened. 002
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 21/03/2026Spotted in SFO, trademark question of the day, nothing more pathetic than an aging hipster edition 0111
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 08/03/2026Branding: I personally would not drive a truck full of white sheets around Virginia with a prominent "88" on it. 2617
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 22/02/2026eBay prize of the semester: shirt from Boston Athletic Association v. Sullivan, 867 F.2d 22 (1st Cir. 1989) 0133
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 13/12/2025Bleakest 2 paragraphs about (c), free speech, and what (whether) we actually want education to be I've seen in a while www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/u... 06528
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 10/11/2025Funny, but also rage-making that women keep having to be funny about this take. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-... 0125
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 20/10/2025Even the dual springs don’t stand up to the wind at Arlington Courthouse 020
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 17/10/2025Cannabis packages seen in NYC--count the TM issues! 4194
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 12/10/2025Made a Bryn Mawr hoodie for my daughter’s teddy bear 1211
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 15/09/2025I ask students to start w/a work and create a derivative work (& explain why it counts) & answers are always wonderful but this one is next level. Considering adopting it next year. 4304
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 12/09/2025wild to see CA9 appeal to the history of vicarious liability as justifying holding Disney liable for the acts of an independent contractor--vicarious liability in (c) is out of sync with history and also w/modern vicarious liability in ... pretty much any other field. 010
Rebecca Tushnet @rtushnet.bsky.social · 11/09/2025Having that particular character say it is giving Ralph Wiggum vibes 110
![the term “battery tender” is best charac-terized as (at least) descriptive. The term itself entails some level of abstraction—“tend[]” is more a metaphorical than literal descrip-tion of what a battery tender does, which is to preserve the battery by maintaining its charge.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xplewlrd4j52agyvzqkww2qi/bafkreiciotoyddkr4r64fajiwivolxke3xuzj5nitbe6ogugxou5my74kq)
![In re Ronald Bennett and Jacob Fakouri, Serial No. 85485633 (May 13, 2013): mark as a whole was merely descriptive. the degree of stylization in the applied-for mark "is not sufficiently striking, unique, or distinctive so as to create a commercial impression separate and apart from the other components of the mark.“
In re Underwater Connections, Inc., 221 USPQ 95, 96 (TTAB 1983) Descriptive for “travel tour services involving underwater diving”
In re Eight Ball, Inc., 217 USPQ 1183, 1184 (TTAB 1983) (holding mark comprising pictorial representation of cue stick and eight ball merely descriptive of billiard parlor services);
Hangzhou Mengku Technology Co., Ltd and Fuzhou Mengku Technology Co., Ltd v. Shanghai Zhenglang Technology Co., Ltd, Opposition No. 91272143 (December 30, 2024] [precedential] computer game software: the illustration or representation need not be completely accurate, realistic or true-to-life. “[t]he ultimate guideline … is whether the design forthwith conveys an immediate idea of a feature of the goods and lacks any additional fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive matter.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xplewlrd4j52agyvzqkww2qi/bafkreiebqje5yh5vuq2rsbe2tpkx6wc3xelvldx2rp3aq42mj76lyv7c4m)
![In re Ronald Bennett and Jacob Fakouri, Serial No. 85485633 (May 13, 2013): mark as a whole was merely descriptive. the degree of stylization in the applied-for mark "is not sufficiently striking, unique, or distinctive so as to create a commercial impression separate and apart from the other components of the mark.“
In re Underwater Connections, Inc., 221 USPQ 95, 96 (TTAB 1983) Descriptive for “travel tour services involving underwater diving”
In re Eight Ball, Inc., 217 USPQ 1183, 1184 (TTAB 1983) (holding mark comprising pictorial representation of cue stick and eight ball merely descriptive of billiard parlor services);
Hangzhou Mengku Technology Co., Ltd and Fuzhou Mengku Technology Co., Ltd v. Shanghai Zhenglang Technology Co., Ltd, Opposition No. 91272143 (December 30, 2024] [precedential] computer game software: the illustration or representation need not be completely accurate, realistic or true-to-life. “[t]he ultimate guideline … is whether the design forthwith conveys an immediate idea of a feature of the goods and lacks any additional fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive matter.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xplewlrd4j52agyvzqkww2qi/bafkreiav77fjfqxvswnioexpedz2oyqrrb52w457jlabg2aelwshueeui4)
![Quote from Jaime Taylor, an academic library resource management systems supervisor with the University of Massachusetts: “We are trying to teach how to construct useful, exact searching,” she said. “But really [these products’ intent] is to make that not happen. The problem with that in a university library is we’re trying to teach those skills but we have tools that negate that necessity. And because those tools don’t work well, you’ve not learned the skill and you’re still getting crap results, so you’re never going to get better results because you didn’t learn the skill.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xplewlrd4j52agyvzqkww2qi/bafkreiby6dnczm5np6hro7p3y5oq3r66vjo63rx3wm5rkd5o6536byjidy)