By Alex Butterman of Staas & Halsey LLP*
Any practitioner of trademark law or businessperson concerned with the legal aspects of trademarks and service marks,2 particularly with respect to their U.S. registration, has probably felt trademark registration practice was experiencing a "witch hunt" for the past six years. Prior to 2003, trademark registration at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") actually seemed to be getting easier with the establishment of online filings and the elimination or simplification of a number of USPTO technical procedural rules in order to harmonize those rules with trademark offices around the world. The combination of easier trademark registration procedures and an increased recognition and perception of a trademark's value in the new internet and intellectual property oriented economy naturally caused the issuance of trademark registrations to significantly proliferate. However, in 2003 the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board at the USPTO rendered a decision in Medinol Ltd. v. Neuro Vasx Inc.3 which significantly lowered the standard for canceling a trademark registration or opposing a trademark application when the application approval or registration was shown to have been procured with a fraudulent misrepresentation or intentional misstatement submitted to the USPTO. Medi...
