Los Angeles, CA — January 2010
LTL partner Enoch Liang just finished arguing a complicated trademark matter before the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit (Judges Pregerson, Reinhardt, and Wardlaw). The issues on appeal involved trademark priority, territoriality, and fraud on the Trademark Office. The oral argument can be heard here [9th Circuit Oral Argument ].
The client first turned to LTL for assistance during the last round of appellate briefing. After seeing LTL’s deep knowledge in trademark matters, the client substituted out its appellate counsel at a full service business law firm with offices around the West Coast.
From the beginning, LTL faced an uphill battle. Not only was the client seeking to overturn a summary judgment ruling below, but LTL had little input into the opening appellate briefs. In fact, LTL never had a chance to review the factual record until after all briefing was finished. Nonetheless, LTL prepared for the oral argument through an in-depth review of the factual record, the cases, and a lengthy, videotaped moot court.
While the Ninth Circuit’s decision is still pending, both the client and LTL are confident that the Ninth Circuit understood that the District Court should not have granted summary judgment below.