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Category Archives: Branding

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MOM’s New Look

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing

Just announced yesterday, Minneapolis based Malt-O-Meal has changed its name to MOM Brands. Malt-O-Meal which has been making cereal for almost a century, manufactures private label brands for a multitude of grocery retailers (as well as their own lines of hot and cold cereal and oatmeal) and today stands as one of the nation’s leading… Continue Reading

BIG GINGER Trademark Dispute

By on Posted in Branding, Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarks

Twin Cities quasi-celebrity Kieran Folliard grabbed headlines this week by suing the owners of Jameson Irish Whiskey, Pernod Ricard, for trademark infringement.  Folliard is well known in the Twin Cities for founding a chain of pubs, including Cooper, Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Liffey, and The Local.  Of these, The Local serves a locally well-known drink… Continue Reading

Louboutin Red-Sole & Surrounding Contrast: An Implied Trademark Limitation

By on Posted in Articles, Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, International, Law Suits, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

The Louboutin lacquered red sole trademark is the subject of great debate in the trademark world, fashion industry, popular news media, and among law school academics and friends of the court. I’m just not seeing it. I really don’t see a viable trademark claim here for Louboutin. Not for the reasons found by the district court — I… Continue Reading

Louboutin Red: Blending Into the Background

By on Posted in Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, Law Suits, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

A purely hypothetical puzzle, but I’m wondering, would Christian Louboutin have a viable trademark claim if Yves Saint Laurent sold women’s shoes in boxes bearing the above seemingly random grid of letters, each letter having equal type, style, font, color and emphasis? For those of you who answered with a strong “of course not,” I suspect your answer must change if selected… Continue Reading

Changing Your Brand Color: No More Golden Arches?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, International, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks

Last year I had a running discussion on color trademarks.  I blogged about the issues surrounding the protection of a color as a non-traditional trademark, the impact of industries clustering around a particular color, and the concern that functionality may impede protection of a color trademark.  Need a refresher? Check here, here, here, and here…. Continue Reading

Tebow Rising? Still?

By on Posted in Branding

Some of you may remember that I recently authored a post calling Tim Tebow a Garbage Pail Kid.  The thesis of my post was that in the world of personal branding, Tim Tebow was significantly closer to a fad than an enduring symbol likely to yield dividends from significant endorsement investments. After Tebow’s miraculous (lucky) playoff win… Continue Reading

Chevy Silverado Super Bowl Ad

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Fair Use, False Advertising, Food, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Television, Trademarks

Absorbing all the television commercials in between football action on the field can be as much fun on Super Bowl Sunday as the actual game itself, at least for trademark and marketing types, especially when your favorite team isn’t even on the field. One of my personal favorites from this past weekend’s Super Bowl XLVI was the… Continue Reading

Insuring a Great Super Bowl Trademark Fight

By on Posted in Advertising, Almost Advice, Articles, Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarks

So, tomorrow is the big day, the big game, or whatever else other intimidated advertisers might call it. I just want to find the best deal on a flat screen television today! But, more to Mike Masnick’s point on Techdirt about the NFL’s reputation as a “trademark bully,” and his challenge to advertisers — “It’s the Super Bowl…. Continue Reading

“If I Were You, I Wouldn’t Screw With Bill Russell”

By on Posted in Branding

Last fall former basketball star Bill Russell, of Celtic and Wilt-Chamberlain-destroying fame, joined forces with former college basketball star and current trivia answer Ed O’Bannon to sue the NCAA.  These former college basketball stars, along with most students who played a college sport, signed an agreement with the NCAA which allows the NCAA to use… Continue Reading

Decide on the “Why,” Not the “What”

By on Posted in Articles, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing

—Mark Prus, Principal, NameFlashSM Name Development If you have kids, you know that they all pass through the “Why Phase,” where they keep asking “Why?” until you ultimately resort to the conversation-ending phrase “Ask your Mother (or Father).” You probably are also familiar with the “5 Whys” technique of asking “Why” at least 5 times… Continue Reading

Brands on Decline in 2012

By on Posted in Branding, Food

Predictions are in and multiple brands are expected to decline or disappear completely in 2012.  CoreBrand CEO, James Gregory (as reported by Jim Edwards), and 24/7 Wall Street have both released lists of brands they believe are on the chopping block for the coming year. The predictions attribute some of these brand failures to the… Continue Reading

Georgia-Pacific 2, Towel-Stuffing Defendants 2

By on Posted in Branding

Back in September of 2010, I discussed a couple of then-recent cases about Georgia-Pacific’s trademark lawsuits over the “stuffing” of non-Georgia-Pacific paper towels into GP’s proprietary dispensers.  By way of brief review, the Eighth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision out of the Western District of Arkansas holding that the practice of “stuffing” does not constitute trademark… Continue Reading

Surname Perceptions

By on Posted in Branding

I find it very interesting how personal perception of a brand name can influence us and I sometimes wonder how much thought is given to brand names when they are chosen. Sure, large companies can, and often do, hire naming specialists who study and create names that will appeal to the masses, but what about small… Continue Reading

Grab Some Buds and Pop a Red Top (or Tab)?

By on Posted in Branding, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Trademarks

Given how much we know you enjoy the subject of non-traditional trademark protection, here is a recent one from Anheuser-Busch: The description of the mark reads: “The mark consists of a design feature of product packaging, namely, a red colored tab on a can, which features a crown design that is transparent. The dotted lines… Continue Reading

College vs. Pro: Battle for Logo Use?

By on Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Trademarks

As a long-time Green Bay Packer fan (and, more recently, owner), I’ve always had an innate dislike of our old NFC Central and other-team-named-after-a-body-of-water rival, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When I learned this fall that those very same Buccaneers slapped my alma mater, Beloit College, with a cease-and-desist letter in the late-1990s, Tampa Bay attained a… Continue Reading

When it Comes to Guest Blogging: Fine or Just Fine?

By on Posted in Branding, False Advertising, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks

In many contexts of our life experience, "fine" sadly seems to have drifted toward embodying mediocrity. Consider this all too common dialogue: "How are you?" "Oh, I’m fine."  Or, perhaps, "Just fine." Translation: "O.K.," "average," "acceptable," "passable," "satisfactory," "I can’t complain," "I’ve been better," or maybe "could be much better" . . . . After all, how interested or… Continue Reading

USA Today Lends Credibility to Airline Rules?

By on Posted in Branding, Marketing

Imagine my surprise this morning, after having blogged just yesterday about rote airline instructions concerning the danger of electronic devices in Lacking Credibility, to see the cover story for USA Today read: "Many Fliers Refuse to Turn Off Electronic Gadgets." Incidentally, not this Gadget, but that’s another story altogether. Recall that yesterday, in writing about the… Continue Reading

Lacking Credibility

By on Posted in Almost Advice, Branding, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Trademarks

I’ll have to say, I really enjoyed Aaron Keller’s guest post from yesterday. In addition to the valuable insights he provided, it got me thinking about some perhaps unrelated, but parallel topics of likely interest to legal and marketing types. Aaron wrote about the importance of a brand being honest with itself and others. He expressed the need… Continue Reading

Webinar: Hot Marketing Topics with Trademark & Legal Implications

By on Posted in Branding, Genericide, Guest Bloggers, Look-For Ads, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Product Packaging, Trademarks

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a ninety-minute webinar with my good friend, frequent and eloquent guest-blogger on DuetsBlog – Aaron Keller of Capsule – complete with some friendly banter on the following: "Hot Marketing Topics with Trademark and Legal Implications." Minnesota Continuing Legal Education has generously provided a link where the webinar can be viewed in its entirety, here. As you’ll… Continue Reading

Tim Tebow Is A Garbage Pail Kid

By on Posted in Branding

For the two or three of you that have made a habit of reading more than the headlines of my blog posts, you may recall that I have occasionally authored posts about "personal branding" as it relates to athletes and celebrities.  Given my general interest in the topic, I couldn’t help but pile on to the information… Continue Reading