DuetsBlog Collaborations in Creativity & the Law

Monthly Archives: July 2009

Just Verb It? Part III: Testing the “Slippery Slope” of Using Brands as Verbs

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Trademarks

Although intellectual property lawyers of the Dr. No variety may not like to admit it – I submit that, not all slippery slopes are created equal. While some slippery slope cautions might prevent a few bumps and bruises in traveling along a particular path (e.g., the one on the left below), I suspect far fewer slippery slope… Continue Reading

Ode to Le Tour De France

By on Posted in TTAB

Now that the Tour de France is over, it looks like the choices in evening television once again consist of several versions of the same reality show.  I can’t complain, the Tour was phenomenal this year and I enjoyed every minute I was able to watch (thank you DVR).  Last week, as the 2009 le Tour… Continue Reading

Internet Surveys — Powerful Yet Perilous

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Genericide, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Product Configurations, Product Packaging, Trademarks

Before the emergence of the Internet, there were two major conventional ways of doing intellectual property consumer surveys — mall intercept surveys and telephone surveys.   Mall intercepts work best for branded, consumer products where there is a visual element to be tested. They are moderately expensive and require some incentive. Telephone interviews are good for brand names,… Continue Reading

Sweet Candy or a Bitter Pill?

By on Posted in Branding, Fair Use, Famous Marks

What has a head but no neck, feet but no legs, a perfectly tipped hat but no arms, is 7’10” tall, and induces glee and cavities in people of all ages? The world’s largest dispenser of Pez, of course! A creation of the founders of the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia (the “Museum”) in Northern California, the… Continue Reading

Really, Facebook? Really?

By on Posted in Advertising, Social Networking

Hot on the heels of Dan Kelly’s prediction of the eventual fall of social networking sites, it seems that Facebook has embroiled itself in another controversy.  The upshot of the most recent story is that Facebook is essentially using its power of cyber eminent domain to sieze and use photos posted by users for advertisements… Continue Reading

Qwesting for a Good Billboard Location?

By on Posted in Advertising, Fair Use, Trademarks

I recently traveled to Omaha and noticed the following billboard: For those not familiar with these companies, Qwest Communications is a telecommunications company that services many western states.  Cox Communications is another relatively large telecommunications company.  Both serve the Omaha area.  The billboard is an example of nominative fair use, which Steve explained here.  While… Continue Reading

Battle of the Nerds? Best Buy’s Geek Squad¬Æ on Trademark Patrol

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Domain Names, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarks

    Best Buy, owner of the Geek Squad brand since 2002, has filed a federal trademark infringement complaint in Minnesota against a pair of individual defendants apparently located in Missouri and California, for allegedly registering and using <thegeekpatrol.biz> domain and the names "Geek Patrol," "Geek Squad," and "Geek Squad Patrol". Here is a copy of the Complaint, including Exhibit A (Trademark registrations), Exhibit… Continue Reading

Employer Branding – The New Kid on the Block

By on Posted in Branding

How would you describe your work environment? Is it a dictatorship or democracy? Is it a cut-throat or supportive environment? Is it an environment of slackers or go-getters? How is your workplace different than other companies or firms in your field? In other words, what sets your company apart from the crowd?   When most people hear the word “branding” they… Continue Reading

Hide in Plain Sight: Using Social Networking Tools to Protect Your Personal Brand

By on Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Social Networking

I just did a Google search of myself. Save one entry, the entire first page of results, including my website, blog, LinkedIn profile, FaceBook page and other information was content created and controlled by me. Had you done that search before I set up various social networking pages a year ago, you would have found… Continue Reading

On Trademark Enforcement & Protection: Is Twitter on Target or Off the Mark?

By on Posted in Genericide, Infringement, Loss of Rights, Trademarks

Brand managers and marketers often wonder about the risks and consequences of not enforcing or protecting their trademarks from infringement. A shooting target formed by a series of concentric circles is the best graphic I have found to illustrate the legal answer to their frequent question. Judging from the robust criticism Twitter has received about its lax or laissez-faire approach to trademark… Continue Reading

Non-Traditional Trademarks Revisited: Feel Me, Touch Me

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Copyrights, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, Trademarks

Tommy has a lot to offer in advancing the recognition of certain kinds of non-traditional trademarks, especially touch marks. Yes, The Who’s tune from the Tommy Soundtrack "See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You" repeats these lyrics over and over: "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me."

Dotcom or Dotcm? Top-Level Typos Now Available

By on Posted in Domain Names

Back in April, I explained a little bit about how typosquatters can capitalize on direct navigation Internet traffic.  I offered an example of the "omitted letter" typo:  www.kellggs.com.  Well, one omitted letter typo variant of .com is becoming widely available:  .cm.  The TLD ".cm" is the country code top-level domain ("ccTLD") for the country of… Continue Reading

The FURminator® and Ads Touting Utility: Marking the Termination of Product Configuration Trademark Protection?

By on Posted in Advertising, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Trademarks

    If FURminator Inc. were looking for a pitchman to promote and increase sales of the "famous" FURminator® pet grooming tool, and recognizing the recent, sudden and unforfunate passing of famous bearded TV pitchman Billy Mays (who could sell household products better than just about anyone, and still appears to be doing so after his passing), I’m thinking that the fictional cyborg assassin… Continue Reading

Bankruptcy as a Branding Tool?

By on Posted in Branding

I came across an interesting article in Yahoo!® Finance the other day, which gave a little bit of insight into the financial woes of some famous brand-names currently in bankruptcy. The article itself consists largely of straightforward facts and figures about these companies, but it raises a couple of interesting points about the effect of bankruptcy… Continue Reading

FOREBRANDING‚Ñ¢: The Role of Internal Congruence and Culture

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks

It’s a dilemma: the economy is in the toilet, panic sets in, and long–range planning gives way to short-term thinking. It’s completely rational and logical, of course, and that just makes it worse. Now managers who should really know better are merely looking to the end of the quarter – or next quarter at best… Continue Reading

Touch Trademarks and Tactile Brands With Mojo: Feeling the Strength of a Velvet, Turgid, Touch Mark?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, Trademarks

Let’s revisit the topic of non-traditional "touch" trademarks today. Of all the traditional five human senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) and trademarks that can be perceived by one or more of those senses, touch, a/k/a tactile, a/k/a texture trademarks are just about as uncommon as any (taste, perhaps, being the least common). Indeed, back in 2006, Marty Schwimmer from The Trademark Blog… Continue Reading

Virtual Opportunity

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Product Packaging

 While salivating over the most recent installment to the Tiger Woods Video Game Franchise, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, my mind began to wander towards product placement. I suppose it is a natural extension that a game which allows players to play “real” courses would logically allow players to purchase “real” apparel and equipment with tournament… Continue Reading

The Rise and Fall of Online Social Networks?

By on Posted in Advertising, Mixed Bag of Nuts, SoapBox, Social Networking

Four weeks ago, I blogged about FaceBook’s ill-advised move to allow unique username URLs.  Some time between then and now, FaceBook removed the page where trademark owners could defensively register their marks to prevent others from choosing such marks as user names.  Now, a rights holder’s only recourse is to submit this form to report… Continue Reading

The Power of Exponents in Branding: DuetsBlog Serves Over 10,000 Unique Visitors

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Squirrelly Thoughts, Trademarks

  Our celebration at DuetsBlog earlier this month on passing the 10,000 unique visitor milestone in four-short months online got us thinking about Big Mac and about the iconic McDonald’s Golden Arches signage, touting and counting how many McDonald’s hamburgers have been sold or served at any given point in time. We began to wonder,… Continue Reading

Van Halen Sues Nike

By on Posted in Copyrights, Infringement

Last month, Eddie Van Halen’s company, ELVH, Inc., filed a lawsuit against Nike for copyright infringement.  The complaint alleges the above-depicted model of Nike’s Dunk Low shoes infringe his copyright in the red, white and black striped Frankenstein guitar design.  The lawsuit is seeking not only profits from Nike’s sale of the shoes and damages, but also the… Continue Reading

Rapala Fishing Lures: More Hits Than Google? Or, More Cats Than You Can Shake a Stick At?

By on Posted in Advertising, Fair Use, Marketing, Search Engines, Trademarks

Rapala, the world’s largest manufacturer of fishing lures has pleasured us with some pretty clever and creative advertisements over the years, a lot of them award-winning ads too. For example, Carmichael Lynch created the above billboard ad that over time gradually "attracted cats" to the billboard featuring a super-sized Rapala minnow fishing lure. Lots of cats, in fact, many more… Continue Reading