Recommended Reading: The Trademark Reporter, July-August 2026 Issue

Here's some late summer reading material: the July-August 2026 (Vol. 116 No. 4) issue of The Trademark Reporter. [pdf here]. Willard Knox, Staff Editor-in-Chief, summarizes the contents as follows (and below): "This issue of The Trademark Reporter (TMR) offers readers insights by practitioners on bad faith trademark applications under Turkish law; an argument that to uphold trademark law’s purpose of ensuring competition, a product feature valued by consumers for its own sake (regardless of source) should not receive trademark protection; an in-depth look at the potential risks posed by a 2026 U.S. Supreme Court decision to secondary liability in the trademark context; and a recommendation of a comprehensive and useful resource to practitioners appearing before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board."

Evaluation of Bad Faith in Trademark Applications Under Turkish Trademark Law by Uğur Aktekin, Selin Bilik, and Bilge Ayperi Kemer. Brand owners doing business in Türkiye will benefit from the insights on bad faith trademark applications shared by the practitioner authors.

Trademarks, Functionality, and Competition by Glynn S. Lunney, Jr. This article argues that because trademark law’s primary objective is to ensure competition, a product feature valued by consumers for its own sake (regardless of the source) is functional and not entitled to trademark protection.

Commentary: Rethinking Contributory Trademark Infringement After Cox Communications by David H. Bernstein, Megan K. Bannigan, Christopher S. Ford, Kathryn C. Saba, and Anna M. Rennich. This in-depth look at the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2026 decision in Cox Communications, Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment outlines the decision’s potential risks to established principles of secondary liability in the trademark context.

Book Review: A Legal Strategist’s Guide to Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Practice. Theodore H. Davis Jr., ed. Reviewed by Leigha R. Santoro. The reviewer finds this guide to be a comprehensive and useful resource for those practicing before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

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TTABlog comment: This issue of the TMR is Copyright © 2026, the International Trademark Association, and is made available with the permission of the Trademark Reporter®.