DuetsBlog Collaborations in Creativity & the Law

Monthly Archives: June 2011

Let the Cloud Platform Wars Begin!

By on Posted in Almost Advice

Microsoft is joining the battle for cloud platform supremacy through the release of Office 365. In doing so, Microsoft joins the likes of Google and VMware to see who will emerge as the new power brokers of the IT industry.  Microsoft held the distinction of being the power broker in the PC era, but the cloud… Continue Reading

From Twitter to a Social Media Policy

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers

—Debbie Laskey, MBA From Ashton Kutcher to Lady Gaga to President Obama’s White House staff to John Q. Public, Twitter has developed a loyal following. If you haven’t become addicted to the social media site known by its bird and fail whale, accept the fact that a member of your family or a close friend… Continue Reading

Baird on Branding & Trademarks

By on Posted in Advertising, Almost Advice, Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, Trademarks

There aren’t too many things I enjoy more than speaking about the legal implications of branding. Our friends at BlackCoffee captured a talk I gave to a group of marketing types a while back, on black and white film (thank goodness), and they have graciously posted a 34 minute excerpt, here. Some of the topics I… Continue Reading

Cat Fight Over Smelly Cat Litter Continues

By on Posted in Law Suits

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (“C&D”) the maker of Arm & Hammer® Super Scoop®has sued the Clorox Company (“Clorox”), the other leading seller of cat litter in the United States, for false advertising under the Lanham Act and various state law claims.  This cat fight initially involved Clorox advertisements that depicted multiple cats shunning and… Continue Reading

“We’re waiting for the rest of it . . . .”

By on Posted in Branding, Goodwill, Marketing, Search Engines, Trademarks

Sixteen pairs of experienced computer users are asked to beta test your on-line product and each of them just stare at the screen until they are asked "what’s wrong?" They reply almost in unison, "we’re waiting for the rest of it." Would you have been discouraged by their almost unanimous response? Kind of like the emperor,… Continue Reading

What do iPhone, iPad, iCloud, and iBooks Have in Common?

By on Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks

Let’s review: From 1978 through 2007, Apple was in on-again, off-again trademark litigation with Apple Corps, holder of rights in The Beatles’ music and record label, over use of the APPLE trademark in connection with numerous music-related aspects of various Apple products and services, including iTunes. In 2007, Apple introduced its iPhone while Cisco held… Continue Reading

What’s In A Name? Sometimes Good, Sometimes Bad, Sometimes Ugly

By on Posted in Branding

A local controversy has recently appeared over the name of one of Minneapolis’s local lakes – Lake Calhoun.  Apparently, this lake was named after John C. Calhoun who, as secretary of war, established Fort Snelling in Minnesota. According to John Winters, a “local civil war history buff,” Mr. Calhoun held pro-slavery views during the early 1800’s. As… Continue Reading

The Seasonality of Materiality?

By on Posted in Advertising, Law Suits, Marketing

          A false advertising case filed yesterday in Minnesota federal district court caught my eye: Splash Products, Inc. v. Twinco Romax, LLC and Twinco/Romax Wisconsin, Inc. It is a rather straightforward false advertising case with the typical legal claims you’d expect to see, but what caught my eye is that the parties are going to… Continue Reading

When Should You Change Your Name?

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers

—Mark Prus, Marketing Consultant at NameFlashSM In my NameFlashSM name development business, I sometimes get asked by clients, “Should I change my brand name?” From a purely selfish standpoint my answer should be “YES!” because I get paid to generate names! But the reality is that there are times when you should not change your… Continue Reading

Excuse Me, There’s Some Ketchup on Your Miracle Whip Bottle

By on Posted in AlphaWatch, Branding, Food, Marketing, Product Packaging

Today, another chapter of AlphaWatch.  I saw an arresting display of Miracle Whip dressing at my local grocery store a couple of weeks ago.  Certain members of my household cannot stand the stuff, so we don’t generally buy it, and I had been blissfully unaware of the most recent label: I will grudgingly grant that the… Continue Reading

How Marketing & Consumers Have Fueled the Need for an Honest Product: A Social Media Story

By on Posted in Marketing

Another day, another social media scandal. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of “Weiner-gate,” referring to the incident of Congressman Anthony Weiner sending an unsavory photo via Twitter. This incident is one of several high-profile fiascos that have played out over the last year, and I can guarantee there will be many more. Of course,… Continue Reading

Noticing Your Exposure to Color Marks

By on Posted in Product Configurations

A few weeks ago I wrote about the use of unique colors in trademarks and logos as a potential way to differentiate your brand. Like using distinctive colors as part of a trademark, many companies use distinctive colors on their actual products to act as source identifiers. While a color trademark for a product does take… Continue Reading

Taste Infringement?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Taste, Trademarks, TTAB

    We’ve spent some time here discussing the world-famous Coca-Cola brand. Most recently, David Mitchell wrote about the incredible consistency of the Coca-Cola brand over the past 125 years. A while back Dave Taylor wrote a nice Ode to the Brand of Brands, the King of Cola: Coke. And, let’s not forget my humble suggestion that… Continue Reading

Ralph Lauren’s New Fall Focus: Mexican Drug Traffickers?

By on Posted in Branding

If the thousands of ads I have seen over the years have taught me anything, it is that the words “Ralph Lauren” and “drug traffickers” don’t belong in the same sentence. According to ad campaigns, upon hearing “Ralph Lauren” we are instead supposed to imagine clean-shaven, chiseled young men with their equally attractive, perfectly slender,… Continue Reading

Tattoos & Hangovers: The Headache of Competing IP Rights

By on Posted in Agreements, Branding, Contracts, Copyrights, Goodwill, Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks

A month ago the hot news was the federal copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Mike Tyson’s facial tattoo artist S. Victor Whitmill against Warner Brothers Entertainment, and Whitmill’s attempt to block the Memorial Day release of the highly anticipated blockbuster sequel movie The Hangover Part II, based on the film maker’s unauthorized reproduction and/or derivative of the tattoo… Continue Reading

Hooray for…Wellywood?

By on Posted in Trademarks

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, owner of the iconic HOLLYWOOD sign and numerous federal trademark registrations incorporating the stylized font used in the sign, is not amused with Wellington International Airport, which announced last week its plans to erect a WELLYWOOD sign “on an unused hillside that it hopes will become an iconic symbol of… Continue Reading