Trademark Cases

Citation: Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82 (1879).

The U.S. Supreme Court held the first federal trademark act to be unconstitutional because it was enacted pursuant to the Copyright and Patent clause:


 * Any attempt . . . to identify the essential characteristics of a trade-mark with inventions and discoveries in the arts and sciences, or with the writings of authors, will show that the effort is surrounded with insurmountable difficulties.

Subsequent federal Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce, foreign commerce, and commerce with the Indian Tribes.