15 U.S.C. § 1121 - Jurisdiction of Federal courts; State and local requirements that registered trademarks be altered or displayed differently; prohibition

• Cite as: 15 U.S.C. § 1121

(a) The district and territorial courts of the United States shall have original jurisdiction and the courts of appeal of the United States (other than the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit) shall have appellate jurisdiction, of all actions arising under this chapter, without regard to the amount in controversy or to diversity or lack of diversity of the citizenship of the parties.

(b) No State or other jurisdiction of the United States or any political subdivision or any agency thereof may require alteration of a registered mark, or require that additional trademarks, service marks, trade names, or corporate names that may be associated with or incorporated into the registered mark be displayed in the mark in a manner differing from the display of such additional trademarks, service marks, trade names, or corporate names contemplated by the registered mark as exhibited in the certificate of registration issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Cite as 15 U.S.C. § 1121

Source: July 5, 1946, ch. 540, title VI, §39, formerly §§39 and 39a, 60 Stat. 440; Pub. L. 97-164, title I, §148, Apr. 2, 1982, 96 Stat. 46; Pub. L. 97-296, Oct. 12, 1982, 96 Stat. 1316; Pub. L. 100-667, title I, §131, Nov. 16, 1988, 102 Stat. 3946; Pub. L. 105-330, title II, §201(a)(10), Oct. 30, 1998, 112 Stat. 3070.

Notes from the Office of Law Revision Counsel

current through 7/7/2021

CODIFICATION

Pub. L. 100-667, §131(b)(1), transferred section 39a of act July 5, 1946, which was classified to section 1121a of this title, to subsec. (b) of this section.

In subsec. (a), the words "and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia" following "the Courts of Appeal of the United States" have been deleted as superfluous in view of section 41 of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, which includes the District of Columbia within the eleven judicial circuits of the United States. The word "and" has been inserted preceding "the courts of appeal of the United States" to preserve the conjunctive sense of the sentence.