Who says that being a large corporate trademark owner is one of the prerequisites to earning the emotionally-charged, pejorative, and ill-defined label "trademark bully"? Well, the original directive to the USPTO appears to assume that "trademark bullying" is a one-way street, disfavoring only large corporate trademark owners, and ignoring the possibility that individuals and small businesses are equally capable of deserving… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Typosquatting: Not Just a For-Profit Problem
Posted in Domain Names, InfringementLast week, I went to the Internet to look up some information. I opened the browser and hastily typed "wkipedia.com" in the address bar and was met with this page: I stared at it for several seconds, during many of which I seriously thought that Wikipedia had updated its home landing page and puzzle-globe design. The… Continue Reading
The Value of Intellectual Property Survives Death
Posted in Branding, Copyrights, Law Suits, TrademarksThe “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson, is earning big money even after his death. To protect this income and value of his brand, a week ago, Michael Jackson’s estate brought suit in California against his mother’s business partner, alleging infringement of the valuable rights to Michael Jackson’s likeness, image, copyrights, trademarks (See Dan Kelly’s post on… Continue Reading
Is your Cell Phone Service Deceptively Misdescriptive?
Posted in Advertising, MarketingThere seems to be few industries with such fiercely combative advertising as wireless phone service providers. Reminiscent of the cell phone map advertisement war in 2009, 4G advertising is certainly on its way to the same level of tension. Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have all rolled out 4G advertising in the last year, but it may… Continue Reading
The Brand Name Auction: Bargain or Bust?
Posted in Guest BloggersLaurel Sutton, Principal of Catchword Brand Name Development Back in December, Racebrook Marketing Concepts held a Brand Name Auction during which "150 Timeless Trademarks and Domains" were offered for sale. But the auction was more bust than boom: only about 50 people showed up, with a few more bidders participating online. The prices, too, were… Continue Reading
Strategies for Dealing with “Trademark Bullies”
Posted in Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks, TTABOn Wednesday March 2, 2011, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at 1:15 PM CST, we’ll be discussing "Strategies for Dealing With "Trademark Bullies" — a pdf of the brochure is here. I’ll be moderating a 75 minute panel discussion with these distinguished speakers: Jacqueline A. Leimer, Chicago-Kent College of Law Mike Masnik, Techdirt Craig Krummen, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A…. Continue Reading
USPTO Extends Comment Period on “Trademark Bully” Survey
Posted in Infringement, Trademarks, TTABLast October, as you may recall, I wrote this in a post entitled "The Mark of a Real Trademark Bully": [T]he U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is currently seeking information about various litigation tactics, including whether "you think trademark “bullies” are currently a problem for trademark owners, and if so, how significant is the problem?" If you have… Continue Reading
License With Care
Posted in Agreements, Contracts, Copyrights, Infringement, Law Suits, Loss of RightsThe Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has recently issued a pair of opinions fleshing out a principle in copyright law known as the "first sale doctrine." The principle traces its roots to the 1908 Supreme Court opinion of Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus. It is currently enshrined in statute and provides in basic part, "the owner of a… Continue Reading
Environmental Film Disaster, A Case for First Amendment Rights or Past Regrets?
Posted in First AmendmentAward winning film producer Joseph Berlinger made a documentary entitled Crude, which followed the case brought against Texaco by a group of civilians who allege that the oil exploration and drilling conducted by Texaco, now owned by Chevron, in Ecuador polluted the rain forest and contaminated their drinking water. The film received rave reviews at… Continue Reading
Rockabilly Barbie Sings the Blues
Posted in Law Suits‘Patricia Day’ rockabilly Mattel ‘Hard Rock Cafe’ Barbie ‘right of publicity’ ‘false association’ HorrorPops
Why Marketing Should Use Du Pont and Sleekcraft Factors
Posted in Guest Bloggers, Trademarks—Randall Hull, The Br@nd Ranch® The intent of trademark law is fairly simple – avoid confusing consumers with brands, names, trademarks, packaging, and even domain names, which are so similar, consumers cannot determine the origin of the goods or services. In short, make sure what you are planning to use is not confusingly similar to… Continue Reading
What Serious Trademark Owners Do
Posted in TrademarksThere are many things that serious trademark owners do throughout the lifecycle of a trademark to mitigate risk, protect the valuable goodwill in their underlying brand, and preserve their valuable investment in this important intellectual property asset. Here is a fairly extensive, but certainly not exhaustive, and often forgotten, list of those things: Clear new marks before using them… Continue Reading
More on Exposing Two-Face Brands
Posted in Branding, Marketing, Trademarks, TruncationThis past summer, as you may recall, I wrote a DuetsBlog post entitled Exposing Two-Face Brands. Susan Perera helped me expand this post to be featured in the January issue of Minnesota Business Magazine. The online version of the expanded article can be found here. Enjoy and please share your thoughts and perspectives.
Gibson’s Case Strikes Chord with Court
Posted in Infringement, Law Suits, Product Configurations, TrademarksIn November I commented on Gibson Guitar Corp.’s suit against the makers and retailers of PAPER JAMZ toy guitars. To recap briefly, past efforts by both Gibson and Fender Music to enforce trademark interests in their respective guitar body shapes have been largely unsuccessful. Until now. On December 21, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the… Continue Reading
Master Blaster!
Posted in BrandingIt was recently announced that Augusta National (home to golf’s famous Masters tournament) would be featured in the latest installment of the Tiger Woods video game. For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise, it has sold millions of games over the past dozen years. Some of the keys to success, in my opinion, are that… Continue Reading
Trademark Bully Update: IPO Says Not a Problem
Posted in Famous Marks, Goodwill, Infringement, Law Suits, TrademarksThe Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) submitted its comments last Friday in response to the USPTO’s recent invitation for input on whether "trademark bullying" is a problem. In response to the USPTO’s key question "Do you think trademark ‘bullies’ are currently a problem for trademark owners, and if so, how significant is the problem?" IPO… Continue Reading
Right Royal, Protecting a Royal (To-Be’s) Name
Posted in InternationalJust across the pond, the UK has been aflutter with the news of the royal engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton since the story broke back in November. As with many high profile events, this one has spurred some creative ways to profit from Kate’s newly elevated status. One area of apparent concern to… Continue Reading
Part II: Social Media Rules!
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers—Rose McKinney, APR, President, Risdall McKinney Public Relations For an equally fascinating perspective on social media within regulated industries, I took a different seat at the Life Science Alley annual conference on December 8 – as a panelist representing the role of the marketing communications agency. Together with panelists Dorothy Gemmell , senior vice president of… Continue Reading
Which Non-Verbal Logo Doesn’t Belong?
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Marketing, TrademarksWelcome to another addition of Non-Verbal Logos that truly stand alone (without words). Other additions here and here. The latter was generously republished by David Airey. So, as we’ve said before, pictures can say a thousand words, but which logo doesn’t belong here: My answer below the jump.
Verbing the DirecTV Brand Name
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Genericide, Marketing, Television, TrademarksYet another brand name and trademark being promoted as a verb in the tagline or signature at the end of each television commercial: "Don’t Just Watch TV. DirecTV." For more on the subject of trademark verbing and the risk of genericide: Just Verb It? A Legal Perspective on Using Brands As Verbs: Part I Just Verb… Continue Reading
“Powerful” Rebranding at International Trademark Association?
Posted in Branding, Marketing, SoapBox, Social Networking, Squirrelly ThoughtsThe International Trademark Association, known as INTA, unveiled a new website yesterday with some new branding and features. (Presser here, INTA Bulletin announcement here.) I like the overall design of the website itself. If you ignore the flipping blocks (which can be difficult), the site has a fairly clean and simple appearance. (The FAQ tells… Continue Reading
Breaking Up May Be Harder in the Cloud
Posted in Almost AdviceSome of the cloud confusion that I previously discussed must be subsiding because even though only 7% of small businesses were using cloud computing services as of April 2010, that number is expected to exceed 10% by mid 2011 according to technology research firm IDC. Either that or more small businesses feel they need to jump on the… Continue Reading
Intellectual Property for Cocktails?
Posted in TrademarksA recent post on the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times combined two of my favorite things in life – intellectual property and cocktails. “The Creative Cocktail” specifically discusses the creativity to be found in the new cocktail scene – including bars designed like prohibition-era speakeasies, farm-fresh ingredients, artisanal details in every drink, and fancy… Continue Reading
Part 1: Social Media Rules!
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Rose McKinney, APR, President, Risdall McKinney Public Relations Do we need stinkin’ rules? When it comes to social media it’s still somewhat reminiscent of the wild, wild West. And we’re all deputized to rule on what’s fair – right on the spot by responding to a particular post with a bystander’s opinion hoping others will chime in… 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...