Trademark
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Phillips Nizer LLP Ranked by Best Law Firms® in 202411/06/2023
Phillips Nizer LLP has been recognized in the 2024 Edition of Best Law Firms®, ranked by Best Lawyers®, nationally in 8 practice areas and regionally in 9 practice areas.
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Phillips Nizer, Charles LaPolla and Alan Behr Recognized in the WIPR Insights Inaugural USA Trademarks Rankings09/12/2023
Phillips Nizer and its Trademark Partners, Charles LaPolla, Trademark Practice Chair, and Alan Behr, Fashion Practice Chair, were included in the inaugural rankings of the leading USA trademark firms and lawyers by World International Property Review (WIPR) Insights.
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Nine Phillips Nizer Attorneys Recognized in the 2024 Edition of the Best Lawyers in America©, including “Lawyer of the Year”, Jan L. Bernstein08/17/2023
Best Lawyers® recognized Alan Behr, Jan L. Bernstein, Regina E. Faul, Helene M. Freeman, Michael W. Galligan, Donald P. Perry, Evan J. Spelfogel, Martin B. Wasser and Elliot J. Wiener.
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Phillips Nizer’s Alan Behr Selected by World Trademark Review as Top Trademark Lawyer for 202307/21/2023
Phillips Nizer is pleased to announce that Alan Behr, Chair of Phillips Nizer’s Fashion Practice, was selected as a top attorney in The World Trademark Review’s 2023 rankings of Top 1000 lawyers for their work. Mr. Behr was recognized in the categories: Prosecution and Strategy, Silver and Enforcement & Litigation, Bronze.
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Phillips Nizer Selected by World Trademark Review as Top Trademark Firm for 202307/21/2023
Phillips Nizer is pleased to announce its selection as a top trademark firm in The World Trademark Review’s 2023 rankings of Top 1000 firms. The firm was recognized in the categories: Prosecution and Strategy, Bronze Level and Enforcement & Litigation, Bronze Level.
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Fashion Industry Blog Post - Dealing With Trademarks In The Metaverse - Hermes Wins MetaBirkins Lawsuit05/17/2023
As has been reported, the luxury design house of Hermès has prevailed in its trademark infringement lawsuit against the artist Mason Rothschild over his “MetaBirkins” NFT project, providing much-needed guidance on how to find a balance between trademark protection under the Lanham Act and artistic freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment.
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Eleven Phillips Nizer Attorneys Recognized in the 2023 Edition of the Best Lawyers in America©02/21/2023
Best Lawyers® recognized Alan Behr, Jan L. Bernstein, Regina E. Faul, Helene M. Freeman, Michael W. Galligan, Marc A. Landis, Donald P. Perry, Jeffrey Q. Smith, Evan J. Spelfogel, Martin B. Wasser and Elliot J. Wiener.
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U.S. News - BestLawyers® Recognized Phillips Nizer LLP as One of the Nation's "Best Law Firms" for 202302/10/2023
U.S. News - BestLawyers® recognized Phillips Nizer LLP as one of the nation's "Best Law Firms" for 2023. The annual rankings are presented in three tiers. A total of eleven areas of the firm's practice were recognized nationally, and in the New York City and New Jersey areas. The rankings were announced on November, 2022.
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Phillips Nizer's Fashion Law Practice Holds Annual Fashion Law Interest Group Meeting in Washington, DC05/05/2022
Phillips Nizer's Fashion Law practice held its annual Fashion Law Interest Group Meeting in Washington, DC at the Hay Adams Hotel. The group's attendees include outside counsel representing fashion designers, luxury apparel and accessories companies and retailers, in-house counsel and retail executives.
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Fashion Industry Law Blog Post - NFTs and Birkin Bags You Kind of Just Look At (Virtually)04/01/2022 | Fashion Industry Law Blog
A lawsuit involving fashion and NFTs that is now in its early stages may help clarify what the law will consider an NFT to be. The case, Hermès v. Mason Rothschild, 22 cv 983 (S.D.N.Y.), was recently filed by Hermès International and an affiliate to halt the marketing and sale of NFTs of images of the brand’s signature Birkin handbag.
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Alan Behr Publishes New York Law Journal Article on the Impact of the Proposed New York State Legislature's Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act03/09/2022 | New York Law Journal
Alan Behr published a New York Law Journal article on the proposed New York State Legislature's Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, a bill that stands to have a major impact on fashion companies operating in New York state as well as show hints of what may arise elsewhere.
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Phillips Nizer Intellectual Property Legal Alert - Fake News, Fake Invoices (March 2021)03/25/2021
You've heard of fake news, but what about fake invoices? Beware of bogus notices and invoices from imposters.
Recently, there has been a proliferation of companies that pose as the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) which try to fool trademark owners into paying to them amounts needed to maintain or renew their trademarks. These fraudsters mail trademark owners phony notices with names and typefaces so realistic that even sophisticated clients have been fooled. -
U.S. News-Best Lawyers® (2021)11/05/2020
U.S. News - BestLawyers® recognized Phillips Nizer LLP as one of the nation's "Best Law Firms" for 2021. The annual rankings are presented in three tiers. A total of eleven areas of the firm's practice were recognized nationally and in the New York City metropolitan area. The rankings were announced on November 5, 2020.
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Alan Behr is quoted in IP Watchdog:The Consumer is King: High Court Sides with Booking.com, Rejecting Per Se Test for Generic.Com Trademarks07/01/2020
“Interestingly, the owner of the mark BOOKING.COM admitted in oral argument before the court that it is a ‘weak mark,’ but the court found it to be a mark just the same. In my experience, marketers are rarely daunted by legal evaluations of the relative strength of marks. If a marketer loves a mark, whether it is as strong as titanium or as weak as tissue paper, he or she will usually go for it and let the law follow along as best it knows how. In this case, the law did just that.
What the case likely means is that there can be no automatic rejection of an application to register a mark that is simply a combination of a generic term such as ‘booking’ and a familiar top-level domain extension such as ‘.com.’ It does not, however, mean that any such combination would necessarily be registered as a trademark. That is, you cannot take any generic term and add “.com” to it and say you definitely have a registrable mark for any goods or services. Each case would still need to be examined on its own merits. The Supreme Court noted, for example, that ART.COM is already registered as a trademark but did not make a new rule that all such combinations are automatically registrable. What the case signifies is that, in the Internet age, top-level domain extensions, when added to generic terms might well create registrable marks. And that is news—an important clarification from the Supreme Court of how old law applies to the new tricks of electronic commerce.”
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Alan Behr is quoted in WTR: “A victory for any brand owner that has invested to build a brand”: Booking.com and legal experts react to Supreme Court decision07/01/2020
“You cannot take any generic term and add ‘.com’ to it and say you definitely have a registrable mark”
What the case likely means is that there can be no automatic rejection of an application to register a mark that is simply a combination of a generic term such as ‘booking’ and a familiar TLD extension such as ‘.com’. It does not, however, mean that any such combination would necessarily be registered as a trademark. That is, you cannot take any generic term and add ‘.com’ to it and say you definitely have a registrable mark for any goods or services. Each case would still need to be examined on its own merits. The Supreme Court noted, for example, that ART.COM is already registered as a trademark but did not make a new rule that all such combinations are automatically registrable. What the case signifies is that, in the internet age, TLD extensions, when added to generic terms might well create registrable marks. And that is news – an important clarification from the Supreme Court of how old law applies to the new tricks of electronic commerce.
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Media - Alan Behr, Partner in the Intellectual Property Law Practice, is quoted by IP Pro Magazine regarding the filing of a European multimedia trademark application by a video game developer requesting the protection of its gory slow-motion kills appearing in its Sniper Elite games. | Read here05/09/2019 | IP Pro Magazine
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Accolade - Monica McCabe, Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Practice, has been recognized by the American Bar Association (ABA) Intellectual Property Law Section for her outstanding leadership contribution to the organization at their annual Section conference.04/15/2019
Monica has been a long-standing member of the ABA, and has served as the Copyright Program Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Section’s annual conference for 3 years, and as the Co-Chair of the IP Webinar program prior to that.
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Media - Fashion Practice Chair, Alan Behr, comments on allegations of copyright infringement and trade dress protection involving COOGI, the Australian fashion brand made famous by rapper Biggie Smalls/The Notorious B.I.G., against the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA, Nike Inc., among others. | Read here03/21/2019 | Bloomberg Law
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Accolade - Alan Behr, Chair of the Fashion Law Practice, and Monica McCabe, Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Practice, selected to the World Trademark Review 2019 (WTR 1000), annual ranking of trademark professionals worldwide. | Read here02/04/2019 | World Trademark Review
As seen in the published directory:
Phillips Nizer colleagues Alan Behr and Monica McCabe both receive great feedback from the market: “Alan is hugely efficient in prosecution as well as in contentious matters and is especially effective in fashion and design cases.” “He has strong European ties, is very easy to communicate with and can move matters forward very fast.” “Extremely quick on her feet, Monica can handle a heavy workload with the utmost professionalism and an eye for detail. That she cares deeply about her clients really shows.” Behr chairs the firm’s fashion practice, while McCabe leads the IP group.
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Media - Monica McCabe, Chair of the Intellectual Property Law Practice, mentioned in Bloomberg Law article highlighting hip hop artist and actor LL Cool J "Rock the Bells" trademark infringement case12/10/2018 | Bloomberg Law
Monica McCabe mentioned in Bloomberg Law article “LL Cool J May Luck Into ‘Rock the Bells’ Rights for Sirius Channel” highlighting a trademark infringement suit filed by hip hop artist and actor, LL Cool J (using his real name James Todd Smith), against a now-defunct concert promotion company Guerilla Union Inc. targeting its Rock the Bells Twitter handle, Facebook page and web domain.
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U.S. News-Best Lawyers® (2019)11/01/2018 | U.S. News - BestLawyers® (2019)
U.S. News - BestLawyers® recognized Phillips Nizer LLP as one of the nation's "Best Law Firms" for 2019. The annual rankings are presented in three tiers. A total of ten areas of the firm's practice were recognized nationally and in the New York City metropolitan area. The rankings were announced on November 1, 2018.
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U.S. News - BestLawyers® (2019)08/15/2018
Best Lawyers® recognized Alan Behr, Helene M. Freeman, Michael W. Galligan, Donald P. Perry, Evan J. Spelfogel, Martin B. Wasser and Elliot J. Wiener.
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Media - Bloomberg BNA quotes Monica McCabe, Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice, regarding the European Union’s efforts to limit food names based on geography, prompting concerns from U.S. cheese producers who fear being prohibited from using generically-named cheese products.06/15/2018
The article, “Cheese Makers Fear EU Name Limits Curdle Profits,” also appears in the Intellectual Property section of Bloomberg Law.
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U.S. News - BestLawyers® (2018)11/01/2017
U.S. News-Best Lawyers® announced on November 1, 2017, Phillips Nizer's recognition as one of the nation's "Best Law Firms" for 2018. The listing is presented in ranking tiers from 1 - 3. We ranked highly, Tier 1, nationally in Copyright Law, Trademark Law and Trusts & Estates Law. We were also ranked in the New York City Metropolitan listings.
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U.S. News - Best Lawyers® (2017)11/01/2016
U.S. News-Best Lawyers® announced Phillips Nizer was recognized as one of the "Best Law Firms" in the nation for 2017 ranking highly nationally in Trusts & Estates Law. The firm was also ranked in the New York City Metropolitan area in Trusts & Estates Law, Copyright Law, Family Law, Intellectual Property Litigation and Trademark Law.
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U.S. News-BestLawyers® (2016)08/17/2015
In an announcement on November 2nd by U.S. News-Best Lawyers®, Phillips Nizer was recognized as one of the 2016 "Best Law Firms" in the nation ranking highly nationally in Trusts & Estates Law, Copyright Law and Trademark Law. The firm was also ranked in the New York City Metropolitan area in Trusts & Estates Law, Copyright Law, Family Law, Intellectual Property Litigation and Trademark Law.
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U.S. News-Best Lawyers® (2015)11/03/2014
2015 was another successful year for Phillips Nizer having been named as one of the “Best Law Firms” in the nation. As in previous years, the firm achieved high rankings in Trusts & Estates Law, Copyright and Trademark Law and Family Law, receiving a “Tier 1” ranking in Trusts and Estates Law and “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” rankings in Copyright and Trademark Law and Family Law, respectively.