United States Supreme Court case
In re Trade-Mark Cases
Supreme Court of the United States Full case name United States v. Steffens; United States v. Wittemann; United States v. Johnson Docket no. 705 Citations 100 U.S. 82 (more )25 L. Ed. 550; 1879 U.S. LEXIS 1808
The Copyright Clause of the Constitution does not give Congress power to protect or regulate trademarks. Majority Miller, joined by Clifford, Swayne, Field, Strong, Bradley, Hunt, Waite, Harlan U.S. Const. Art. I, Sect. 8, Cl. 8
The Trade-Mark Cases , 100 U.S. 82 (1879), were a set of three cases consolidated into a single appeal before the United States Supreme Court , which in 1879 unanimously[1] ruled that the Copyright Clause of the Constitution gave Congress no power to protect or regulate trademarks .[2] Congress then passed the , which was based on the Commerce Clause power, and therefore passed constitutional muster.
The three cases were United States v. Steffens , United States v. Wittemann , and United States v. Johnson . Steffens and Wittemann dealt with alleged counterfeiting of marks associated with champagne , while Johnson dealt with alleged counterfeiting of a mark associated with whiskey .
The opinion was written by Justice Samuel Freeman Miller .
The Court did not exclude all possibility of Congress regulating trademarks. Congress, however, read the decision very strictly and in a new trademark law enacted in 1881 regulated only trademarks used in commerce with foreign nations, and with the Indian tribes, areas specified under the Commerce Clause. It was not until 1905 that Congress would again enact a trademark law generally governing marks in use in the United States, though the 1905 act was also carefully worded to fall within the Commerce Clause.
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U.S. Supreme Court Article I case law
Enumeration Clause of Section II
Utah v. Evans (2002)
Department of Commerce v. New York (2019)
Trump v. New York (2020)
Qualifications Clauses of Sections II and III
Powell v. McCormack (1969)
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995)
Elections Clause of Section IV
U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995)
Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (2015)
Origination Clause of Section VII
Presentment Clause of Section VII
Pocket Veto Case (1929)
Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha (1983)
Clinton v. City of New York (1998)
Hylton v. United States (1796)
Collector v. Day (1871)
Springer v. United States (1881)
Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. (1895)
Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co. (1916)
Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922)
United States v. Butler (1936)
Helvering v. Davis (1937)
South Dakota v. Dole (1987)
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)
Commerce Clause of Section VIII
Coinage Clause of Section VIII
Copyright Clause of Section VIII
Copyright Act of 1790 Patent Act of 1793
Tyler v. Tuel (1810)
Evans v. Eaton (1818)
Evans v. Eaton (1822)
Evans v. Hettich (1822)
Patent infringement case lawPatentability case lawCopyright Act of 1831 Copyright Act of 1870 Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 International Copyright Act of 1891 Copyright Act of 1909 Patent misuse case law
Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Manufacturing Co. (1917)
Morton Salt Co. v. G.S. Suppiger Co. (1942)
Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 Lanham Act
Inwood Laboratories, Inc. v. Ives Laboratories, Inc. (1982)
San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee (1987)
Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. (1992)
Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. (1995)
College Savings Bank v. Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board (1999)
Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. (2001)
TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. (2001)
Dastar Corp. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. (2003)
Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc. (2003)
Lexmark International, Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc. (2014)
POM Wonderful LLC v. Coca-Cola Co. (2014)
Matal v. Tam (2017)
Iancu v. Brunetti (2019)
Romag Fasteners, Inc. v. Fossil, Inc. (2020)
Copyright Act of 1976
Zacchini v. Scripps-Howard Broadcasting Co. (1977)
Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (1984)
Mills Music, Inc. v. Snyder (1985)
Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises (1985)
Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid (1989)
Stewart v. Abend (1990)
Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co. (1991)
Fogerty v. Fantasy, Inc. (1994)
Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994)
Lotus Dev. Corp. v. Borland Int'l, Inc. (1996)
Quality King Distributors Inc., v. L'anza Research International Inc. (1998)
Feltner v. Columbia Pictures Television, Inc. (1998)
New York Times Co. v. Tasini (2001)
Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003)
MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005)
Reed Elsevier, Inc. v. Muchnick (2010)
Golan v. Holder (2012)
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2013)
Petrella v. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. (2014)
American Broadcasting Cos., Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. (2014)
Star Athletica, LLC v. Varsity Brands, Inc. (2017)
Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com (2019)
Rimini Street Inc. v. Oracle USA Inc. (2019)
Allen v. Cooper (2020)
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. (2020)
Other copyright cases Other patent cases
Continental Paper Bag Co. v. Eastern Paper Bag Co. (1908)
Minerals Separation, Ltd. v. Hyde (1916)
United States v. General Electric Co. (1926)
United States v. Univis Lens Co. (1942)
Altvater v. Freeman (1943)
Sinclair & Carroll Co. v. Interchemical Corp. (1945)
Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kalo Inoculant Co. (1948)
Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. v. Supermarket Equipment Corp. (1950)
Graver Tank & Manufacturing Co. v. Linde Air Products Co. (1950)
Aro Manufacturing Co. v. Convertible Top Replacement Co. (1961)
Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. (1964)
Wilbur-Ellis Co. v. Kuther (1964)
Brulotte v. Thys Co. (1964)
Walker Process Equipment, Inc. v. Food Machinery & Chemical Corp. (1965)
Graham v. John Deere Co. (1966)
United States v. Adams (1966)
Brenner v. Manson (1966)
Lear, Inc. v. Adkins (1969)
Anderson's-Black Rock, Inc. v. Pavement Salvage Co. (1969)
Zenith Radio Corp. v. Hazeltine Research, Inc. (1971)
Gottschalk v. Benson (1972)
United States v. Glaxo Group Ltd. (1973)
Dann v. Johnston (1976)
Sakraida v. Ag Pro Inc. (1976)
Parker v. Flook (1978)
Diamond v. Chakrabarty (1980)
Diamond v. Diehr (1981)
Bonito Boats, Inc. v. Thunder Craft Boats, Inc. (1989)
Eli Lilly & Co. v. Medtronic, Inc. (1990)
Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc. (1996)
Warner-Jenkinson Co. v. Hilton Davis Chemical Co. (1997)
Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc. (1998)
Dickinson v. Zurko (1999)
Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank (1999)
J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. (2001)
Festo Corp. v. Shoketsu Kinzoku Kogyo Kabushiki Co. (2002)
Merck KGaA v. Integra Lifesciences I, Ltd. (2005)
eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006)
Illinois Tool Works Inc. v. Independent Ink, Inc. (2006)
LabCorp v. Metabolite, Inc. (2006)
MedImmune, Inc. v. Genentech, Inc. (2007)
KSR International Co. v. Teleflex Inc. (2007)
Microsoft Corp. v. AT&T Corp. (2007)
Quanta Computer, Inc. v. LG Electronics, Inc. (2008)
Bilski v. Kappos (2010)
Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A. (2011)
Stanford University v. Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (2011)
Microsoft Corp. v. i4i Ltd. Partnership (2011)
Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. (2012)
Kappos v. Hyatt (2012)
Bowman v. Monsanto Co. (2013)
Gunn v. Minton (2013)
Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. (2013)
FTC v. Actavis, Inc. (2013)
Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International (2014)
Akamai Techs., Inc. v. Limelight Networks, Inc. (2014)
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc. (2015)
Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment, LLC (2015)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. (2016)
TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC (2017)
Peter v. NantKwest, Inc. (2019)
Other trademark cases
Necessary and Proper Clause of Section VIII
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Lambert v. Yellowley (1926)
Gonzales v. Raich (2005)
United States v. Comstock (2010)
United States v. Kebodeaux (2013)
Habeas corpus Suspension Clause of Section IX
Ex parte Bollman (1807)
Ex parte Merryman (1861)
Ex parte Endo (1944)
Immigration and Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr (2001)
Boumediene v. Bush (2008)
Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam (2020)
No Bills of Attainder or Ex post facto Laws Clause of Section IX
Contract Clause of Section X
Import-Export Clause of Section X
Brown v. Maryland (1827)
Canton Railroad Co. v. Rogan (1951)
Compact Clause of Section X
Copyright law in the United States
17 U.S.C.
Copyright Clause
United States Copyright Office
Copyright status of works by the federal government of the United States
Copyright status of works by subnational governments of the United States
Statutes
Pre-1976 1970s 1980s 1990s
Visual Artists Rights Act (1990)
Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (1990)
Copyright Renewal Act of 1992
Audio Home Recording Act (1992)
Uruguay Round Agreements Act (1994)
No Electronic Theft Act (1994)
Copyright Term Extension Act (1998)
Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998)
Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act
WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act
2000s
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (2005)
2010s 2020s
Precedents and rulings
Supreme Court Appeal courts
Berlin v. E.C. Publications, Inc. (2d Cir. 1964)
Roth Greeting Cards v. United Card Co. (9th Cir. 1970)
Eltra Corp. v. Ringer (4th Cir. 1978)
Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. (3d Cir. 1983)
Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc. (7th Cir. 1983)
Fisher v. Dees (9th Cir. 1986)
Whelan v. Jaslow (3d Cir. 1986)
Vault Corp. v. Quaid Software Ltd. (5th Cir. 1988)
Computer Associates International, Inc. v. Altai, Inc. (2d Cir. 1992)
Dr. Seuss Enters., L.P. v. Penguin Books USA, Inc. (9th Cir. 1997)
Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc. (2d Cir. 1998)
Nunez v. Caribbean Int’l News Corp. (1st Cir. 2000)
A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc. (9th Cir. 2001)
Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l (5th Cir. 2002)
In re Aimster Copyright Litigation (7th Cir. 2003)
NXIVM Corp. v. Ross Institute (2d Cir. 2004)
Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp. (9th Cir. 2008)
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. v. American Buddha (2d Cir. 2011)
Monge v. Maya Magazines, Inc. (9th Cir. 2012)
Seltzer v. Green Day, Inc (9th Cir. 2013)
Authors Guild, Inc. v. Google, Inc. (2d Cir. 2015)
Lower courts