DuetsBlog Collaborations in Creativity & the Law

Sharon Armstrong

View my professional biography

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. Instead of taking to the stage, however, my first career was in arts administration and fundraising at the Los Angeles Opera. Four years of opera taught me how to listen and fine-tuned my patience with opaque language — skills that have served me well as an attorney. A newcomer to the state of Minnesota, I spent my first years of legal practice in Las Vegas, advising clients in the casino, real estate, banking and entertainment industries on domain name acquisition and enforcement, and trademark and copyright counseling and litigation, or what I like to call “the law of shopping.”

Posts by Sharon Armstrong

Branding the Derby

By on Posted in Branding

Tomorrow begins what is possibly the most anticipated drinking, hat-wearing, and horse-racing event of the year – the Kentucky Derby.   Though I’ve never been much of a horse-racing aficionado, I have always been charmed by the spectacle, the lore, and, for lack of a better word, the accoutrements of the Kentucky Derby.   Founded in 1872… Continue Reading

And Now a Word From Our Fruit Salad Sponsor

By on Posted in Branding

It is springtime in Minnesota – at last!  Cue the smell of fresh cut grass, the clink of ice cubes in a glass, and the taste of wonderful, fresh fruit. Yep, it’s time to start thinking about fruit salad.  I like to start with cantaloupe, and add blueberries, strawberries, peaches, and kiwi, if any or… Continue Reading

Not a Merchandising Masterpiece

By on Posted in Television, Trademarks

One of my favorite shows on TV right now is Downton Abbey.  No mere period drama, this Masterpiece Theatre presentation has become something of a sleeper sensation, partly for its swooning melodrama and partly for its (some would say romanticized) illustration of the English class system, following the upstairs-downstairs lives of the denizens of a… Continue Reading

.Anything?

By on Posted in Domain Names

Today ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as the company that basically runs the Internet, begins accepting applications for generic top level domains.  Most users know top level domains such as .com, .org, .edu…and even .xxx.  Now, under this new program, organizations can apply to use virtually any term, including… Continue Reading

Occupy.

By on Posted in Trademarks

You know how when you say a word over and over again, or stare at it long enough, it stops making ordinary sense and starts becoming something else?  To some extent, that’s how I’m beginning to feel about “occupy.” Regardless of what you may think about the movement – that it is democracy in action… Continue Reading

Co-opting Political Symbols for Commercial Use

By on Posted in Trademarks

The Lanham Act prevents applicants from registering any of a number of words and devices as marks, including immoral or scandalous matter and flags or coats of arms.  In terms of the latter exclusion, such a prohibition makes sense; without it, for example, any merchant could use an American flag to hawk goods and services… Continue Reading

A Trademark Lesson from Famous Inventors

By on Posted in Trademarks

Every so often I come across a turn of phrase that just makes me smile. The online news magazine Slate did so with its slide show called “There Once Was a Man Named Leotard,” which is devoted to how certain people – generally well-known inventors – have names that have become nouns. This charming selection is culled… Continue Reading

Cupcakes Are So 2010…or Are They?

By on Posted in Law Suits, Trademarks

Okay, I’ll admit it—I’m not a huge fan of cupcakes. Cake is one of those desserts that is often served (and consumed) for obligatory purposes; it is served at weddings and birthdays and other occasions to signify a celebration. The problem, in my humble opinion, is that you’re supposed to eat it. And let’s face it, the world… Continue Reading

Yet Another Trademark Lesson From Jersey Shore

By on Posted in Trademarks

One thing I love about trademark law is how extraordinarily easy it is to find useful examples of basic trademark lessons in real life – even in a television show that has been called “mind-numbing” and “absolutely ridiculous” and has spawned a Facebook page called “Jersey Shore is Stupid & A Waste of Time.”  Yes,… 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

Colorful Animals…the next trend in food?

By on Posted in Food

Just 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

You’re Cordially Invited…

By on Posted in Branding

…to be one of an estimated 2 billion people watching one of the biggest branding/rebranding projects in the world: the Royal Wedding (and everything that leads up to it).  As if wedding jitters and the co-opting of their names aren’t enough to deal with, Kate Middleton and Prince William, both of whom are still in… Continue Reading

The Wine Menagerie

By on Posted in Trademarks

Kingsley Amis, that lauded British humorist and man of letters, once said that “a German wine label is one of the things life’s too short for, a daunting testimony to that peculiar nation’s love of detail and organization.” Indeed, as a recent article in the Wall Street Journal points out, it wasn’t so long ago that… Continue Reading

Everyone’s a Critic – For Better or For Worse

By on Posted in Branding

P.T. Barnum is credited as having said that there is no such thing as bad publicity. In modern times, technology has made it so that we, the huddling masses, can have not only access to good and bad publicity with a keystroke, but also join the crowds leveling criticism or praise at anything in our path. Like… Continue Reading

Intellectual Property for Cocktails?

By on Posted in Trademarks

A 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

Yet Another Good Reason to Listen to Your Trademark Attorney

By on Posted in Trademarks

Trademark attorneys often counsel their clients to file trademark applications with the broadest scope of goods and services possible (e.g., broad categories of goods without any trade channel limitations). The main reason for this is to provide clients with the broadest scope of trademark insulation on the registry. Filing for ELVISWARE for “tableware” rather than “glassware featuring… Continue Reading

Sorry, Plaintiff, You Might Not Recoup All of Your Damages

By on Posted in Copyrights

Do these designs look identical to you?    They do to Urban Bratz. Urban Bratz, owner of a copyright registration for its design, filed suit in the Northern District of Illinois against Spencer Gifts claiming copyright and trademark infringement among other causes of action. You can read the complaint, filed August 24, here.  Specifically, Urban Bratz… Continue Reading

Vampires vs. Zombies

By on Posted in Trademarks

What is it with zombies these days? If recent memory serves correct, it wasn’t so long ago that a pop-culture junkie like me couldn’t mention the words “creature of the night” without some girl/tween/soccer mom swooning over the likes of one Edward Cullen, the romantic hero of Stephanie Meyer’s wildly popular  Twilight series. You know who you… Continue Reading

Collar + Cuffs = Stripper?

By on Posted in Trademarks

If 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

By on Posted in Trademarks

CityCenter 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

What a Difference a Day Makes

By on Posted in Food, Trademarks

The website Eater.com has reported that these applications are the result of a “bi-coastal food trademark / bao war!” between New York City chef/restaurateur (and attorney) Eddie Huang, owner of the restaurant Baohaus, and San Francisco-based food truck company Mobi Munch.