Introduction

In our earlier Earth Day post, we provided an overview of California Senate Bill 343 — the landmark law that rewrites the rules governing when and how recyclability claims may be made on products and packaging sold in California. We noted that a coalition of trade associations had filed suit in the U.S.

The Federal Circuit partially refuted the long held assumption that the trademark applicant has the burden of proving third party marks were in use when determining the strength of the applicant mark. The panel led by Judge Dyk found that when determining the conceptual strength of trademarks, “absent proof of non-use [of registered marks], use