If you suffer from Cloud confusion, you are not alone. A recent study from Hubspan, an application integration and hosting company, found that about 39% of the companies in the study either planned to move some business application to the cloud or had no interest in to add a cloud or SaaS based project. The top reason… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: October 2010
Not All “Natural” Tans Come From the Sun
Posted in Advertising, MarketingSometimes the posts just write themselves: I’m still trying to get "Natural" together with "Spray-on Tanning" in my head. "Natural" is one of those words that I see frequently to describe a number of products and services, especially food products. But I’m not sure that it always means what I understand it to mean. There… Continue Reading
Color Marks & One Company’s Long Haul to Color Mark Protection
Posted in Famous Marks, Non-Traditional TrademarksI was surprised to see the six registrations pictured above for color marks come out of the USPTO this month. And I bet that most of you can identify the owner of these marks without even checking the registrations. (If you must, registrations: here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Although I wouldn’t consider… Continue Reading
In the Brand Name Game, Honda Gets it Done the Hard Way
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Goodwill, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks—Dave Taylor, Taylor Brand Group In this age of fiercely defended intellectual property, it’s tough developing even a single new product name. Registered trademarks guard their brand territory in every industry and fence out their competitors. Launching a new product name can take months or years of name generating, testing, and legal process. Done well,… Continue Reading
The Mark of a Real Trademark Bully
Posted in Dilution, Domain Names, Famous Marks, Trademarks, TTABSeems as though there is a lot of discussion and news reports these days about bullying and how to put a stop to it: School bullying, workplace bullying, and cyber-bullying, to name a few of the most common types. Fair enough, as I recall, my seventh grade PE teacher was a real bully. However, for those… Continue Reading
Shop Tools by Marvel Comics?
Posted in Branding, Dilution, Famous Marks, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, TrademarksLast Friday, MVL Rights, LLC, a Disney subsidiary and apparent owner of rights in the HULK name and character of Marvel Comics origin, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio against Airbase Industries, LLC regarding Airbase’s use of HULK in connection with air compressors. [Insert obligatory Hulk-angry-lawsuit quip… Continue Reading
Politically Entertaining
Posted in Copyrights, Fair Use, InfringementAs Election Day, November 2nd, is fast approaching, I thought it would be timely to do a piece on politicians and how they periodically run afoul of the copyright laws. Over the past few years, there have been several political candidates accused of using copyrighted material in their campaigns, and “fair use” tends to be… Continue Reading
A Monster Mash of Halloween Store Marks
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, MarketingIt’s that time of year again, when retail stores featuring ghosts, goblins, and all things spooky begin to appear. This year multiple parties went trick or treating at the USPTO to register their trademarks for Halloween retail store services, and apparently they weren’t all reading Steve’s post from earlier this year regarding party store names. Some… Continue Reading
Does Your Branding Pass The SNIFF Test?
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing—Anthony Shore, Operative Words Let’s be honest: There’s a lot of bullshit in branding. It’s a pity — and it’s a threat. Because today, brand or marketing communications exuding any whiff of bull will be distrusted, discredited and derided by today’s cynical audiences. And no audience is more cynical than the 18-34 years-olds — the… Continue Reading
Gap, Tropicana, The Wall Street Journal, and the 1968 Tet Offensive
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Product Packagingby James Mahoney, Creative director/writer at Razor’s Edge Communications What does a 42-year-old military offensive have to do with branding and social media? Quite a bit, as it happens. Consider four seemingly unrelated situations: First, clothing purveyor Gap experienced an alleged misadventure recently when it unveiled a "new logo" on its website, only to reinstate… Continue Reading
Retail Sign Shape Trademarks: The “French Diamond Design”
Posted in Branding, Food, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, TrademarksYou probably have gathered by now that I like thinking and writing about non-traditional trademarks. For some time, mostly when I’m in the car and I happen to notice them, I have been wondering about the shapes of various retail signs and how many of their owners may have sought to federally register them as non-traditional trademarks, separate… Continue Reading
Honoring Randy Moss Doesn’t Make It Fair Use
Posted in Advertising, Famous Marks, Food, Goodwill, Infringement, Marketing, TrademarksThis little gem arrived yesterday, basically an email promotion for this weekend, featuring Randy Moss and celebrating his return to the Minnesota Vikings: Of course, I’m thrilled too, that Randy Moss has returned to play ball in Minnesota, but that doesn’t mean we forget all about his legal rights (name, image, likeness, right of publicity, to name a few),… Continue Reading
Lego My Smart Blocks
Posted in Law SuitsOn September 23, 2010, Smart Blocks, Inc. filed an action against Lego seeking, among other things, to recover a shipment of Smarck’s Smart Blocks that were being held up at U.S. Customs. For those of us who don’t specialize in U.S. border protection, the Customs Department has the authority to seize goods which are believed to infringe… Continue Reading
Copyright – Common Misconceptions
Posted in CopyrightsThis is a departure from my typical blog, but it is a good opportunity to provide some basic information. As part of my practice I often have clients or referrals for clients seeking copyright protection for something they have created or plan on creating. What I have discovered is that there are some common misconceptions surrounding copyrights in… Continue Reading
Trademarked Logos Appear to Have No Protection on Twitter
Posted in Guest Bloggers, Trademarks—Barry Wise, Co-founder of KnowEm.com Recently Gap rolled out a new logo (at least on their website – no word yet as to whether the same logo will be used in stores), and already a twitter account impersonating the logo itself is out there – @GapLogo. This is obviously not an official company account, but simply… Continue Reading
Snickers Cross-Section Trademark Notice
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, TrademarksYou may recall about a year ago I did a post entitled "Delicious Trademarks: Candy Bar Cross-Section Trademarks?" I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago when I snapped this photo, capturing what I believe to be the same point of sale display that inspired my original post: A couple of months ago I saw in a convenience store a large Snickers… Continue Reading
Primitive & Impolite, But Non-Vulgar Trademark & Naming Technique?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, TrademarksOn a recent pilgrimage to my home town to visit the University of Iowa and to see the Hawkeyes play football again in hallowed Kinnick Stadium, I discovered that a rather rudimentary and perhaps impolite (or potty mouth), yet passionate (sorry Nancy) branding technique, is alive and kicking in Iowa City. I also learned what now appears to go hand-in-hand (or, perhaps leg-in-hands as… Continue Reading
New “Tinman” Triathlon to be Sponsored by Ironman?
Posted in Branding, Goodwill, Marketing, TrademarksI enjoyed Brent’s "I’m with the Brand" post last week, in which he detailed being turned off by overzealous fandom of some popular, or perhaps trendy, brands. I can identify (although I have no qualms about being, or admitting that I am, an "Apple Core"). This week, I read about a situation that illustrates the contrapositive of what… Continue Reading
Collar + Cuffs = Stripper?
Posted in TrademarksIf there is any trademark case this year that has the media clamoring to create cute headlines, it may just be this one – In re Chippendales USA, Inc., decided by the Federal Circuit just six days ago. “Federal Circuit Leaves Chippendales Nearly Naked,” said The American Lawyer, “Judge ‘strips’ Chippendales of bid to beef… Continue Reading
What Happens in Vegas…May Burn You
Posted in TrademarksCityCenter Land, LLC, a subsidiary of MGM-Mirage, owns nine trademark registrations for VDARA, the name of one of the newest resorts in Las Vegas. Vdara is an all-suite building, has a spa, a restaurant, no casino gaming, and is non-smoking. It even has a “death ray.” Local and national news outlets and architecture blogs have… Continue Reading
Want Pancakes With That Prayer?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Goodwill, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarks—Alan Bergstrom, Beyond Philosophy IHOP (International House of Pancakes) recently filed a lawsuit to prevent another group, International House of Prayer, from using its trademarked acronym. According to the trademark infringement filing, IHOP has repeatedly asked the religious group to drop the use of the acronym IHOP, which is a registered trademark for its franchised… Continue Reading
And, Here’s . . . Jimmy’s Johnnys
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, Famous Marks, Food, Marketing, Television, Trademarks, TTABOne good thing leads to another, or perhaps, vice versa (then again, maybe not): Odds are, you probably are familiar with the logo on the left, but maybe not the history behind the brand and company it represents. Apparently, a guy named Jimmy John Liataud founded Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches in Charleston, Illinois, in 1983, and since then, has grown… Continue Reading
Tripartite Branding Trouble: The Name is Suk?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Goodwill, Marketing, Trademarks"The name is Bond, James Bond," said Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Daniel Craig, among others, countless times in film, as part of the famous 007 series. An ideal name for a secret agent. A name and line not easily forgotten, as brands and taglines should be. And then, there are some names you’d like to forget, but can’t, especially if… Continue Reading
The Magic Number
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Goodwill, International, TrademarksCertain late-baby boomers and gen X’rs will know that 3 is "The Magic Number." Don’t believe me? See here. I raise this cultural referent principally because I once stumbled upon, quite by accident and for reasons that I cannot now recall, the following items in the U.S. Trademark database: The English translation of "SAMSUNG" is… Continue Reading
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Duets Blog Authors
Steve Baird
Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More...
Dan Kelly
You can call me a “non-traditional” attorney, which is a polite way of saying that I did not attend law school straight out of college. I spent five of my first six years after college as a junior high school teacher. The other year I worked as an engineer for a large corporation. More...
Sharon Armstrong
Voted most likely to become an actress while in pre-school, I don’t think I surprised anyone by becoming a lawyer, the steadiest professional gig open to those with a flair for the dramatic. More...
Brent Lorentz
Although I wish I could say my path to the law was the result of a lifelong dream or calling, it was more the result mere curiosity and an affinity for leather-bound books. More...
Catlan McCurdy
Having long been told by my parents that I could do or be anything I wanted, I chose at the age of 10 to become an attorney, as it was the career that would most likely lead me to my goal of becoming the first woman POTUS.More...
Tiffany Blofield
Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...
Brad Walz
My law career started on the ice…as a defensive hockey player (we’re not talking professionally…and if I were, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into law). More...
Susan Perera
Born into the world with an aptitude for science and an affinity for art I found my career path quickly chosen for me. More...
Derek Allen
In hindsight, writing about creativity and the law may have always been in the cards for me. I began training for a career in litigation at an early age by finding ways to disagree with pretty much anyone about pretty much anything. In my longest-running “case,” I argued with my middle school math teacher, Mrs. Jabs, for the better part of four years over whether, even if I got the right answer, I had to show my work to get full credit. More...
Laura Gutierrez
An attorney I am not. Though told to become one, I don't possess those qualities needed to be an effective one (I lack confrontation skills, and although I can write a great argumentative essay, I can’t argue outside a sheet of paper). More...