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Litigation Partner James Molen spoke with Law360 about why the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a trademark dispute between PepsiCo and RiseandShine Corp., and what it could signal about forum shopping in infringement cases.

Excerpts:

The Supreme Court granted the petition even though the federal government argued it shouldn't. That the Supreme Court took on the case despite the federal government's arguments suggests that the justices want to bring some consistency to this issue, given that "it's a very lopsided circuit split," James R. Molen of Greenberg Glusker LLP said.

"When we're interpreting federal statutes that are supposed to have nationwide application, the Supreme Court is interested in obviating that kind of forum shopping," Molen said. "It should be uniform. And by granting cert over the solicitor general's recommendation, the court is signaling that it wants to resolve that issue."

But if the justices take the same position as the Second Circuit on this issue, it might get "a lot easier to knock out what you would call weaker marks on summary judgment," Molen added. He said such an outcome could benefit bigger companies in reverse confusion suits, in which a larger, more well-known junior user is alleged to have overwhelmed a smaller senior user's mark, causing consumers to think the senior user's goods are affiliated with the junior user.