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Category Archives: Guest Bloggers

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The Hairy Underside of the Butt-Billboard Campaign

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts

- James Mahoney, Razor’s Edge Communications Not long ago, Steve Baird posted a commentary on a colonoscopy campaign that featured attention-getting, humorous (to some) butt jokes. I liked ‘em. Thought they were clever and effective. Beyond making me think of my guts, though, they also brought to mind a conversation I had with a mentor a… Continue Reading

New Challenges for So-Called “Patent Trolls”

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Idea Protection, Infringement, Law Suits, Patents

- Sri Sankaran, Patent Attorney, Winthrop & Weinstine Recent developments in executive, legislative, and judicial branches present new challenges for patent trolls (or less pejoratively “non-practicing entities” or “assertion entities”). The White House recently outlined a series of initiatives to address the impact that patent assertion entities have on the economy.  The administration cited a… Continue Reading

“Frankenstein” Class Action Suit Against YouTube Dies in Court…For Now

By on Posted in Copyrights, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Law Suits, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology

- Ryan Francis, Law Student, William Mitchell Law School      vs.   Is he alive? Not really, but the Manhattan Second District Court recently referenced the Frankenstein monster in The Football Ass’n Premiere League Ltd. v. YouTube Inc., No. 07 CIV. 3582 LLS, 2013 WL 2096411 (S.D.N.Y. May 15, 2013). In this case, plaintiffs alleged… Continue Reading

Is Product Placement Out of Place? Not Yet

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Mixed Bag of Nuts

- John Reinan, Senior Director, Media Relations, Fast Horse Steve Baird recently wrote about the use of real brand names on fictional products in entertainment. Branching off from that thought, I began wondering about the future of product placement in TV, movies and online entertainment (also known as embedded marketing). Product placement has been around… Continue Reading

A Question, a Funny and a Curiosity: Three Things Coming from a Trip to New York City

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts

First, the curiosity, when you see a gaggle of characters and then notice they all have “tip purses” in some form with their respective costumes, beware. In a visit with a media company in Times Square (Viacom specifically) we had to pass a few of these characters who were looking to have their photo taken… Continue Reading

Are TV & Digital Mutually Exclusive? Not at All: Why Multi-Channel Marketing Makes Sense

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology, Television

- David Mitchel, Director of Marketing – Distribion, Inc. AdAge posted an article today featuring CBS CEO Les Moonves commenting why his network is a better fit for media buyers than digital media. One quote attributed to Moonves was: “If you need to reach a mass audience, you’re not going to get that online….We figured… Continue Reading

It’s Raining Fluid Trademarks

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

So-called “fluid” trademarks are gaining a recent downpour of attention – on Monday INTA wrote about them in the Daily News distributed in Dallas at INTA’s 135th Annual Meeting, it also held a panel discussion on the topic the same date (we’ll have more about that next week), and just yesterday guest-blogger Jason Voiovich provided an insightful marketer’s… Continue Reading

Oh Ketchup…I’m Just Not That Into You: Understanding the Value of Fluid Trademarks

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Product Packaging, Trademarks

- Jason Voiovich, Director of Corporate Marketing, Logic PD Don’t get me wrong.  My two children elevate their weekly Heinz intake regimen to near Olympian discipline.  But me?  I enjoy a good dollop with pound of fries at the Lion’s Tap, but I haven’t given America’s second-favorite red condiment a second thought since John Kerry… Continue Reading

Protecting Non-Functional Product Design Features Through The Entire Life Cycle: From Conception to Grave

By on Posted in Branding, Contracts, Guest Bloggers, Idea Protection, Patents, USPTO

- Jeffrey Stone, Patent Attorney, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. IP protection for product designs is typically found in a combination of one or more of the following protective mechanisms: 1. Contracts which are typically used with employees and 3rd parties to prevent loss of novelty as well as provide notice of ownership. Contractual protections such… Continue Reading

Evaluating Equations for Measuring Social Media ROI

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Social Media, Social Networking

- David Mitchel, Director of Marketing – Distribion, Inc. At the end of my last guest post on this site, I promised that my next post would evaluate some mathematical equations for measuring social media ROI. Special thanks to Angie Schottmuller of Search Engine Watch for writing a detailed article entitled “Social Media ROI: 14… Continue Reading

Twitter Can Be a Brand Marketer’s Best Friend

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Search Engines, Social Media, Social Networking, Technology

- Debbie Laskey, MBA If you’re a marketer, you probably spend a great deal of your day checking Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and LinkedIn. Depending on your industry, you may also spend time on YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, and any number of other peripheral sites. But did you know that Twitter can be your best friend… Continue Reading

Caribou Coffee’s Announcement and Handling of Closing Stores

By on Posted in Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers

- Susan Hopp and Karl Schweikart, 45 Degrees/Minneapolis With all the brouhaha in the news lately, let’s just touch the tip of the iceberg with a few observations about branding. First of all, let me remind you that branding is all about managing customers’ expectations, building brand awareness and enhancing relationships to increase loyalty with… Continue Reading

When Will We Run Out of Words to Trademark?

By on Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

-John Reinan, Senior Director, Media Relations, Fast Horse I’ve been thinking about trademark bullying, and I was all set to write a surprising piece standing up for the bullies. You know, the big companies that spend giant piles of money developing products and services, and then hiring marketing geniuses like me to name them, and… Continue Reading

Body Shaping Manufacturers Butting Heads Over Cami Designs

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Law Suits, Patents

- Jeffrey Stone, Patent Attorney, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. Two previously unrelated topics, Spanx and the Real Housewives television shows, are now connected by a legal dispute that is shaping up to be a real battle of the bulge (or muffin top) with neither party seemingly interested in smoothing things over. Thanks to recent, and ongoing, design patent… Continue Reading

The Names of MIT Media Lab: How to Describe an Innovation

By on Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Technology

- Anthony Shore, Operative Words There is nothing else quite like MIT Media Lab. Their mission to “invent a better future” has given us a better present. It’s Media Lab’s research and development that led to the Kindle and Nook, Rock Band and One Laptop Per Child. While their innovative projects receive and deserve recognition,… Continue Reading

The Most Important Shot in Trademark History

By on Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Sight, Trademarks

- Draeke Weseman, Weseman Law Office, PLLC   Pantone 278: Carolina Blue What I do remember about that evening is that stores for dozens of miles around must have sold out of light blue paint, because nearly everyone had a stash, which was dumped indiscriminately over friends and strangers in a precursor to the Gatorade… Continue Reading

Changing Your Brand Name: A Game of Whack-a-Mole and You’re the Mole

By on Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts

- Dave Taylor, Owner, Taylor Brand Group One of the big decisions prospective parents face is the all-important choice of a first name for their child. It’s the name almost everyone will use to address the child throughout his or her life. The choice will reflect heavily on the parents based on how appropriate, respectful,… Continue Reading

I SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE: WILL LEADERS AND COMPANIES EVER LEARN FROM THEIR MISTAKES?

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Law Suits, Mixed Bag of Nuts

- James E. Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA Tuesday, February 26, 2013 was a bright, cold, sunny day as I prepared to depart State College, Pennsylvania, the home of Penn State football, after participating the evening before in a really interesting and wide-ranging panel discussion; an exploration of the problems this University is facing, and… Continue Reading