You may have noticed some faux gravity in media outlets of late dealing with cheese. If you’ve been tuned to Olympic coverage, you are forgiven for having missed such rollicking headlines as: “Judge Won’t Give Gruyere the Champagne Treatment.”[i]   Or Planet Money’s  “cheesy story” on radio trying to decipher a label with a trade

The new year is unfolding, and we are unexpectedly back in our kitchens, or should be, as we minimize socializing in indoor restaurants and bars. A downer, to be sure, but also an opportunity to reflect on some legal issues affecting food and wine. With apologies to those who prefer a classic menu, I’ll be

Just in time for holiday meal prep, we have a legal quandary worthy of debate.  Your side dish recipe calls for brown basmati rice bejeweled with cranberries and pomegranates. Sounds alluring. But what exactly is Basmati rice?

The answer, like so many things in law and life, is “it depends.”  Cooking websites tell us that

Hardly a week goes by now without news of another company announcing it will dissociate from a long-held brand that depicts or references racial caricatures or stereotypes. Even sophomoric attempts at humor like TRADER GIOTTO have tumbled in the face of public scrutiny.  Arrivederci! It’s as if in board rooms across America, executives have

The Wall Street Journal heralded the Supreme Court’s decision in the Booking.com case with the headline “Supreme Court Eases Trademark Rules for Websites. (United States Patent and Trademark Office et. al. v. Booking.com B.V., decision by J. Ginsburg.) The Court “gave online companies broad latitude to trademark their website names,” it proclaimed

It’s that time of year again, when people are traveling hither and yon.  If you haven’t made your reservations by now, or the French strikes have you worried, it’s likely you will find yourself at midnight scrolling through online travel sites to snag a last-minute, 20% off deal. Booking.com may be just the ticket.

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The Brunetti Case

The United States Supreme Court decision in Iancu v. Brunetti issued June 24, 2019 held that the Lanham Act provision barring federal registration of immoral and scandalous marks violated the First Amendment. The majority opinion, by an odd fellows grouping of justices (Kagan, Thomas, Ginsburg, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh) explained that this

The registered collective association mark owned by Mongols Nation Motorcycle Club of West Covina, CA

A novel attempt to seize a registered mark is captivating headlines in Los Angeles. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has prosecuted a motorcycle club known as Mongols Nation on charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

A press release from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in early October heralded the key achievements of the recently concluded U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, intended to replace the vilified NAFTA agreement that dated from the early 1990s. Let’s take a look at what the release said about Geographical Indications:

“The Parties agreed to provide