Law360 interviewed Finnegan partner Mark Sommers to discuss trademark cases to watch in 2022. Mark commented on the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s (TTAB) decision in Meenaxi v. Coca-Cola, a case involving the misuse of Coca-Cola brands in India. Meenaxi Enterprise Inc. filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit an appeal to reverse the TTAB’s decision in favor of Coca-Cola, which ruled that Meenaxi was trying to mislead Indian-American consumers by registering “Thums-Up” and “Limca,” —brand names that Coke has sold in India for decades.
Mark stated that the TTAB decision is “welcome news” for foreign trademark owners, explaining that the decision reinforces a foreign company’s right to block another company from registering the same mark by proving that “the registrant’s U.S. product is the foreign product they have come to know.”
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Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC)
