This article will discuss the three Lanham Act cases decided by the Supreme Court in 2014 and 2015, and subsequent district court decisions construing them.
‘Hana Financial’
In Hana Financial v. Hana Bank,1 the U.S. Supreme Court found that when a jury trial has been requested in a trademark case, the doctrine of “tacking” must be determined by a jury, absent facts warranting the grant of summary judgment or judgment as a matter of law. Tacking is when two marks owned by the same person or entity “create the same, continuing commercial impression” so that consumers “consider both as the same mark.”
