Attorney’s Challenge of Goats-on-Roof Trademark Deemed Frivolous

A lawyer lost his bid to cancel a restaurant’s trademark of goats on a grass roof for being “demeaning to goats,” after the Federal Circuit said he lacked standing to bring what the court considered a “frivolous” appeal.

The Dec. 9 ruling affirmed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board decision against attorney Todd C. Bank, who had petitioned the board three times to cancel the trade dress of Al Johnson’s Swedish Restaurant & Butik Inc. The court ordered Bank to pay the restaurant’s attorneys fees, saying he persisted with an argument clearly barred by case law and baselessly moved for ...