Federal Circuit Blocks Law Professor From Opposing Rapunzel Mark

An intellectual property law professor lacks standing to challenge a bid to register a “Rapunzel” doll trademark, the Federal Circuit affirmed.

Rebecca Schoff Curtin of Suffolk University failed to undercut 2014 Supreme Court precedent generally limiting Lanham Act claims to commercial competitors rather than consumers, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board properly found her concerns—as a purchaser of dolls—that registering the trademark would harm competition to be “remote,” and “speculative tertiary effects,” the panel said.

The precedential opinion by Todd M. Hughes clarified that under the 2014 US Supreme Court ...