Revival of Aesthetic Functionality Doctrine Imperils Non-Traditional Marks, Panelists Say

“The resuscitation of the aesthetic functionality doctrine over the past year potentially puts any trademark that could conceivably be deemed to have a functional component at risk,” trademark attorneys cautioned at the eighth annual continuing legal education meeting of the Institute of Intellectual Property and Social Justice at Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C., on March 8. Finnegan partners Julia Anne Matheson and Douglas A. Rettew spoke about current developments in trademark dilution jurisprudence at the event.