- John Reinan, Senior Director at Fast Horse, a Minneapolis marketing agency I love “orphan” cars — the marques that have gone out of business. Most of them are barely remembered by Baby Boomers, much less anyone younger. Packard, Hudson, Nash, Studebaker, Willys – these and other automakers often were stylistically and technically more advanced… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: May 2011
International Internet Governance
Posted in Almost AdviceMemorial Day is a time for saying goodbye and, in one sense, saying goodbye around this time of year to a group of people has become automatic for many of us. I am referring to the many graduating seniors from high schools and colleges around the nation. Those institutions say goodbye to one class of students in… Continue Reading
Pendleton, Oregon: Company Town?
Posted in Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, TrademarksIf you are not familiar with Pendleton, Oregon, you may have heard of it. Pendleton is home to an annual rodeo known as the Pendleton Round-Up, and Pendleton’s most famous exports are probably the wool and clothing goods of Pendleton Woolen Mills. The two have grown up together for more than a hundred years, but… Continue Reading
The Repetitive Nature of Marketing
Posted in MarketingIt’s not a secret that repeating an action makes it a habit. The same applies to marketing, as my boss (the wonderful Deb Cochran) always says, "do it once, use it seven times." Television and print advertising are the most notable, of course. How many times do you see the same commercial during an hour-long… Continue Reading
Donuts Now in HD!!
Posted in AdvertisingWhile passing through the bakery at our local grocery store I noticed this sign for HD Donuts. Donuts in high definition you ask? Nope, they’re just highly delicious. Does it seem like every brand owner is trying to take advantage of the HD hype these days? Even those brands that have nothing to do with… Continue Reading
Overstocked with Names: It’s Still the Oakland Coliseum Around Here
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Laurel Sutton, Principal at Catchword Brand Name Development You may be aware that there is a large sports arena located in Oakland, California, wherein both the Oakland A’s and the Oakland Raiders play their respective sports. You may further be aware that this edifice is commonly known as “the Oakland Coliseum”, a practical name which… Continue Reading
Brands That Cut Corners, Literally . . .
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, TrademarksWendy’s is a brand that claims to not cut corners: "For Wendy’s, square isn’t so much a shape as a promise to not cut corners." As a trademark type, the focus on the square shape and surrounding symbolism leaves me wondering whether Wendy’s is cleverly laying the groundwork for claiming non-traditional trademark rights in the… Continue Reading
English Company Loses to Magic Kingdom
Posted in Infringement, Law Suits, TrademarksEnglish Company THOIP asserted its rights to a family of unregistered trademarks in a children’s book series involving cartoon characters called “Mr. Men” and “Little Miss” by suing the king of the cartoon characters—Walt Disney Company (and related companies). The products at the center of the dispute are t-shirts. You may have seen Britney Spears… Continue Reading
Would the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up
Posted in Fair UseBefore I launch into this post, I must provide the disclaimer that I am not a Tweeter and I do not regularly use Twitter. That being said, here we go. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, then Twitter is quickly becoming sycophancy central. “Fake” Twitter accounts abound throughout the Twitter-verse and, frankly, I find… Continue Reading
AlphaWatch on the Streets of San Francisco
Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Marketing, TrademarksSomething like 8,000 trademark attorneys are wandering loose on the streets of San Francisco for the International Trademark Association’s annual meeting. Once again, the main attraction was "Meet the Bloggers" — this edition happened to be "Meet the Bloggers VII" — where a record crowd crammed into Swig Bar a few hours ago, from 8:00 – 10:00 PM. Thanks Marty, John, and Ron for another great event!… Continue Reading
Aveda, Aveida
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Marketing, Trademarks—Nancy Friedman, Chief Wordworker at Wordworking and author of Fritinancy Imagine my surprise—as a name developer, beauty-brand fan, and trademark aficionada—when I saw this sign in my Oakland, California, neighborhood back in March. It wasn’t the prospect of a new nail spa that piqued my interest; our local commercial strip already has dozens of mani-pedi… Continue Reading
Trademark Bull?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, TrademarksIn the midst of all our discussion about "trademark bullying," I couldn’t resist picking up this "No Bull" postcard from Manny’s Steakhouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You may recall Dan previously wrote about Manny’s promoting similar images with the phrase "One Helluva Sac Lunch". Dan also noted the irony of the best beef coming from steers, not… Continue Reading
Sed Quid in Infernos Dicet?
Posted in AlphaWatchIt has been some time since we have visited AlphaWatch, and today we turn our attention to an ad I spied on ESPN’s website this week: This takes me back to law school and a Latin phrase common in legal parlance, res ipsa loquitur, which is commonly translated, "the thing speaks for itself." The legal principle… Continue Reading
Do You Believe in Ghost(Writing)?
Posted in MarketingThe next time you talk to a blogger, ask if they write their own content. You might be surprised at their reply. Being a marketer, I, of course, tend to brag talk about DuetsBlog, and it’s funny how many people are impressed, almost shocked, that every author on DuetsBlog writes their own content. And by… Continue Reading
Industry Color Clusters
Posted in BrandingI recently read Nora Reed’s blog post, Locate your Brand on the Color Spectrum, on Logoblog. Nora identified a trend, which you may have noticed from time to time, that some industries tend to congregate in a specific color scheme. For example, fast food logos tend to be in the red/yellow category, while social networking… Continue Reading
Coca-Cola’s Consistency Most Remarkable
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Goodwill, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Television, Trademarks—David Mitchel, Norton Mitchel Marketing Coca-Cola is celebrating its 125th birthday this month. A 125 year history as a brand is quite remarkable. Very few brands last that long. In its 125 history, Coca-Cola has become an iconic brand globally. Coca-Cola is a great case in showing the importance of the various elements of the… Continue Reading
Without GameStop, It’s Just a Hat Trick . . . .
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Sight, TrademarksAs you may recall, I’ve reported before about the trend toward and popularity of red & white letter branding and visual identities, so I couldn’t resist snapping this photo of a new strip mall in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, over the weekend: Since GameStop wasn’t featured in this strip mall, the line-up of SmashBurger, SportClips, and Verizon… Continue Reading
Rapala Taunts a Monster?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Fair Use, Marketing, TrademarksHappy Mother’s Day! So, it’s time again to talk a little fishing billboard branding, I guess. We have enjoyed discussing Rapala billboard ads over the last couple of years, the "attracting cats" billboard, the "More hits than Google" billboard, the "Whudjagiddumon" billboard, and now the "Do you believe in monsters?" billboard. Note the upper case "G"… Continue Reading
3M v. Shoplet (A Post-It Brand Stick Up?)
Posted in Law SuitsLast Friday Twin Cities Business and the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on 3M’s recent trademark infringement case filed against online retailer Shoplet. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here is a pdf of the complaint. It asserts a variety of violations of 3M’s exclusive rights in the federally-registered POST-IT trademark, including federal trademark infringement, false designation of… Continue Reading
Harsh Words for the “Trademark Bully” Report to Congress
Posted in TrademarksEric Goldman over at the Technology & Marketing Law Blog has some harsh words for the recent Report to Congress on Trademark Litigation Tactics. He calls the report "worthless", a "complete whiff", "useless", and a waste of tax dollars. In addition, David Pardue over at the Trade Secrets and IP Today blog calls it a "whitewash". Now… Continue Reading
Colorful Animals…the next trend in food?
Posted in FoodJust the other day I was perusing one of my local food blog roll favorites, the Hot Dish section of City Pages, when I learned that a new coffee shop, Blue Ox, is opening not too far from where I live. The new shop, joins another local “ox” in town, Green Ox, purveyor of (delicious,… Continue Reading
Has Facebook Got a Deal for You
Posted in Guest Bloggers—Ted Risdall, Risdall Marketing Group Consumers spend billions of dollars online every year. To improve their chances of cashing in on this huge opportunity, many businesses have turned to group buying services like Groupon and Living Social to help them reach large audiences with "deal of the day" offers that entice buyers with significant discounts…. Continue Reading
Reese for Sheriff?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, Fair Use, First Amendment, Food, Guest Bloggers, Product Packaging, TrademarksHat tip to Dave Taylor who provided this photo for some discussion: Looks like a fellow named Mark Reese, currenting Acting Sheriff, is running for Sheriff in Lancaster Country, Pennsylvania, right in Hershey’s backyard. Do you suppose this Hershey’s trade dress may have inspired the Acting Sheriff’s campaign? Your thoughts on whether Hershey’s has a claim?… Continue Reading
Subscribe
Add this blog to your feeds or enter your email in the box below and hit GO to subscribe by email.
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...