U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
The Sixth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for MillerKnoll, holding that the Nelson family authorized the company’s ownership of the iconic George Nelson Bubble Lamp trademarks through a 2006 royalty agreement — and in a precedential ruling, confirmed that authorization defeats unregistered trademark infringement claims under Lanham Act § 1125(a).
An E.D. Mich. judge allowed Eight Mile Style’s direct copyright infringement claim to proceed against Meta for storing 243 Eminem compositions in its music libraries without authorization, while dismissing contributory, vicarious, and inducement claims in a ruling that applies the Supreme Court’s 2026 Cox decision.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed denial of a preliminary injunction against P&G’s Spruce weed killer, holding that Scotts failed to prove its Miracle-Gro green-and-yellow trade dress was distinctive enough to support a likelihood of confusion.
The Sixth Circuit reversed summary judgment for George Clinton and his company Thang, holding that genuine disputes of material fact exist about whether the late P-Funk keyboardist Bernie Worrell was a co-author and co-owner of the group’s sound recordings under copyright law.
The Sixth Circuit holds that district courts may not require ‘clear and convincing evidence’ for each preliminary injunction factor in trade secret cases, reversing a lower court’s denial of injunctive relief against an engineer who allegedly took proprietary documents to a competitor.
In a 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit affirmed only $1 in nominal damages for Sanyo’s admitted misuse of Oldnar’s touchscreen know-how under a joint development agreement, holding that the plaintiff’s sole royalty-based damages theory was legally inapplicable.
The Sixth Circuit held that Static Control Components had standing to sue Lexmark under the Lanham Act for false advertising in the toner cartridge market — a ruling affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2014 under a new zone-of-interests and proximate cause standing framework that displaced the split among circuits on Lanham Act false advertising standing.