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... opinion in a trademark case. It held that decisions of the US Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) may, in some cases between the same parties, have preclusive effect on likelihood of confusion issues and therefore be binding on a district court in a subsequent case: So long as the other ordinary elements of issue preclusion are met, when the usages adjudicated by the TTAB are materially the same as those before a district court, issue preclusion should apply. The Sputnik ...

... an oral argument on an issue that directly impacts one of the most important strategic decisions a trademark litigator makes: whether to oppose (cancel) someone’s trademark in a Trademark Office’s administrative proceeding or sue that party in a district court. The issue came from B&B Hardware Inc. v. Hargis Industries Inc. et al., and is framed as follows: whether an earlier ruling by U.S. Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or Board) on the registration question should ...