Michael Hall of Registration Ruminations is wrestling, as more and more trademark practitioners are, with the increasingly ubiquitous problem of inconsistency within the PTO on trademark registrations — a topic on which he’s developed genuine expertise. In fact, I knew I had blogged about this before and had gotten involved in a pretty contentious debate in the comments section with a knowledgeable practitioner who disagreed with my view on the matter, and passionately. When I dug up that post — yup, the springboard had been Michael’s blog then as well!
Michael has developed his learning on that topic even more since that time. As he notes, this week he and Judge James Walsh gave a presentation at Intellectual Property Owners’ Association’s USPTO Law and Practice conference in Washington D.C., on the probative value of third-party registrations in LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION.
The handout for the presentation is here.
