ILMA Compoundings - February 2021 - 28

Continued from page 26
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
and during several Vietnam War protests. However, the building was never
breached or attacked in the way it was
on Jan. 6. It is difficult to look at the
photographs of Capitol Police aiming
their guns through the broken glass of
the center door of the House chamber
at the protesters trying to break in.
This is the same door the president
enters each January to deliver the State
of the Union address.
Other photographs are equally
distressing. One picture shows the
protesters milling about the Capitol
rotunda in front of epic paintings
of key moments in our history. The
people were under the same dome that
President Lincoln insisted construction
continue on during the Civil War. They
stood in the same place where presidents
and others, including John McCain and
John Lewis, have lain in state.
There is one interesting photograph
of a fur-clad protester sitting under the
portrait of Massachusetts Sen. Charles
Sumner. On May 26, 1856, Sen.
Sumner was brutally caned on the floor

of the Senate by South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks. Rep. Brooks
was upset by an anti-slavery speech Sen.
Sumner had delivered three days earlier.
Sen. Sumner eventually recovered and
spent another 18 years in the Senate.
Hours after the tragic events on Jan.
6, the House and Senate returned to
their sessions and completed overnight
the ratification of the Electoral College vote and the election of Joe Biden
as our 46th president. The debate
over, and the ultimate acceptance of
electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania, showed that we could see both the
worst and the best of America on the
same day.
I expect that my sadness will turn
to hope. Our country is in a difficult
and delicate state right now. Besides
our politics being out of control, the
COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted
our daily lives and has led to the
untimely and unnecessary deaths of so
many people. I hope that Republicans,
Democrats, conservatives, liberals,
Trumpers, never Trumpers, all sorts
of political interest groups and even
the media can stop, take a deep breath

Continued from page 27
gets muddled by arguments over types
of goods and services being offered in
conjunction with the trademark. By
returning to the pre-2006 presumption
of harm rule, registered trademark
holders will be able to more easily
obtain legal protections.

require an in-use certification, this
process will also prevent domestic registrations from remaining on the books
and being used to block applications.
The second process created under the
TM Act is an ex parte reexamination
procedure. Any person may submit a
verified statement that a registration
was mistakenly granted, as it was either
not used in commerce on the date an
in-use application was submitted, or
it was not in use on the date that an
intent-to-use application was amended
with an in-commerce claim.
If the trademark office accepts either
the cancellation or reexamination of a
mark, the director of the USPTO may
cancel the registration for all specific
goods or services improperly registered,
which may then be appealed to the

EX PARTE CANCELLATIONS
The final change created in the TM Act
is two ex parte processes for purging the
trademark register of registered marks
not being used in commerce. Under
the first process, any person may file a
verified statement with evidence that
a trademark registration should be
removed from some or all of the goods
and services based on its nonuse in
commerce. While directed principally
at foreign registrations, which do not

28

FEBRUARY 2021

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

and find some way to dial back the
rhetoric, even if it is easy to take a
potshot or two at a deserving target.
We need to get our political discourse
back on track, and we need to deliver
this message to our representatives and
journalists. In many ways, we learned
the lesson in kindergarten - that is, to
keep one's hands and words to oneself.
We can do this. ILMA and its
members have been and continue to
be leaders here in Washington, D.C.,
and in communities across the country. They have demonstrated time and
again over my 40-year involvement
with the Association how to do the
right thing. It has been a privilege for
me to represent ILMA, its members
and the industry for the past four
decades. I am honored by the number
of friends I have made through the
Association. I look forward to working
with the ILMA team on the challenges
and opportunities ahead.
Leiter serves as general
counsel to ILMA, representing
the Association since 1981.
He may be reached at
202-466-6502 or jleiter@bmalaw.net.
TTAB. If instead the director opts
not to cancel the mark, the decision
may not be appealed or challenged by
anyone else. Both processes become
effective on Dec. 27.
Trademark owners, including ILMA
members, now have new options in
their brand protection toolkit thanks
to the TM Act. However, as highlighted above, these procedures and
processes could open their trademark
registrations and applications to new
challenges from competitors.
Levetown serves as associate
counsel to ILMA through
Bassman, Mitchell, Alfano &
Leiter Chtd. He may be
reached at 202-466-6502 or
mlevetown@bmalaw.net.
http://www.ILMA.ORG
ILMA Compoundings - February 2021

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