Analyzing Trademark Protection and Judicial Rulings

Analyzing Trademark Protection and Judicial Rulings

Reasons for the Court Decision

The decision made by the District Court was that the Hoots were entitled to the trademark only on the surrounding areas within a radius of 20 miles. While the national company was free to operate their business using the trademark anywhere except for the area that the Hoots were operating from. The main reason behind this decision is because the hoots registered their trademark under the Illinois trademark Act, whereas the national company had registered under the Federal Trademark (Garbis, 2013).