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Category Archives: Infringement

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Distinguishing the Fictional From the Real: Names and Brands in Television and Movies

By on Posted in Agreements, Branding, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, First Amendment, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Television, Trademarks

We have an interesting question to answer, leading us into the holiday weekend, during which I suspect a few movies will be watched by more than a few marketing types and trademark types: “Is it trademark infringement if a fictional company or product in a movie or television drama bears the same name or brand as a real… Continue Reading

Louboutin International Trademark Dispute

By on Posted in Branding, Infringement, International, Trademarks

Those of us who love fashion and have closets overflowing with more pairs of shoes than we probably need are likely familiar with Louboutin pumps. These sky-high heels have a very distinctive look and design. Louboutin heels have recently been the subject of trademark controversy here in the United States. As Tiffany Blofield noted in a blog… Continue Reading

Putt-Putt Has No Miniature Trademark Rights

By on Posted in Branding, Genericide, Infringement, Law Suits, Loss of Rights, Trademarks

With all the golf coverage of the Masters Tournament and the coveted Green Jacket, this past weekend, it seemed particularly appropriate to report on a recent trademark case involving the miniature variety of golf: Putt-Putt, LLC v. 416 Constant Friendship, LLC (April 5, 2013 D. Md.). So, I learned two things this weekend, Adam Scott… Continue Reading

Employee Wrongfully Terminated for Refusing to Engage in Criminal Copyright Infringement

By on Posted in Copyrights, Infringement, Law Suits, Mixed Bag of Nuts

Adam Young worked for an architecture firm, Nortex Foundation Designs Inc. in Fort Worth Texas as a drafter. He was hired in 2001 and designed foundation plans based on copyrighted architectural designs that Nortex provided to him. In 2010, Young received a plan being drafted for a homeowner that had a black stamp which stated… Continue Reading

Prince, the DMCA, and Bullying

By on Posted in Copyrights, Fair Use, First Amendment, Infringement, Social Media

Minneapolis’ own hometown hero Prince Rogers Nelson, formerly and currently known simply as “Prince,” has been in the news quite often in 2013. It began with his surprise, limited ticket performances in January, which he followed up with a surprise concert to close out the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Prince has also made legal… 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

Canine Inspired Copyright Confusion?

By on Posted in Agreements, Contracts, Copyrights, Infringement, Marketing, Social Networking, Trademarks

When we mention confusion on DuetsBlog, we’re typically referring to the well-known likelihood of confusion test of trademark infringement. But today, we’re focused on the apparent confusion many have about the important question of: When copyright protection comes into being. If you ever have wondered whether something is or has been “copyrighted,” this post is for… Continue Reading

Sheetz Flushing Subway’s Footlong TM Hope?

By on Posted in Branding, Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks, TTAB, USPTO

It has been almost six months since oral argument before the TTAB over the question of whether the word “footlong” is a trademark or a generic name for a type of sandwich. What type of sandwich you ask? One about twice as long as a six inch sandwich, let’s say about twelve inches in length, making it, oh, about a foot long. Needless… Continue Reading

My Namesake Sues To Protect Its Famous Mark

By on Posted in Branding, Counterfeits, Dilution, False Advertising, Famous Marks, Infringement, Law Suits, Sight, Trademarks

Coincidentally (or perhaps by design), Tiffany and Company (“Tiffany”) filed suit on Valentine’s Day against Costco Wholesale Corporation (“Costco”) to protect its trademark with respect to engagement rings.  We know from our prior post regarding Tiffany’s amicus brief filed in support of Christian Louboutin that Tiffany actively protects its brand. If you are like me,… Continue Reading

McDonald’s Trade Dress? State Farm is There.

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, Famous Marks, Food, Infringement, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

Passing by a roadside billboard recently (below is a miniature version I found in the Minneapolis skyway system), my first thought was, wow, McDonald’s is getting into the juicy lucy business: Until more focus revealed that State Farm Insurance is the one behind the ad. Look familiar? No doubt burgers and car insurance are totally different lines of business and… Continue Reading

No Escape

By on Posted in Copyrights, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Infringement

This post is probably a bit dated for the readers that are on the cutting edge of developments in the film industry.  But since that may only be a small subset of our readers, I thought this information was worth sharing. Apparently, a brazen independent film director managed to surreptitiously shoot nearly an entire film on-site… Continue Reading

The Not-So-Happy Place of Genericness

By on Posted in Articles, Food, Genericide, Infringement, Law Suits, Loss of Rights, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Trademarks

Restaurant trade dress is possible to own when the claimed trade dress is distinctive and non-functional, think Taco Cabana. Restaurant trade dress can be so unique in the marketplace that distinctiveness is presumed with a finding of inherent distinctiveness. When not so obviously unique, distinctiveness also can be established with the more difficult proof of secondary meaning. Remember 1992? The… Continue Reading

The Louboutin Color Trademark Controversy Continues

By on Posted in Branding, Copyrights, Infringement, Law Suits, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks, USPTO

While watching Lena Dunham stumble in her 6-inch Louboutin red-soled heels during the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards broadcast, our comments revolved around the fact that her dress was so long, she should have worn slippers instead of stilettos.  We believed that Ms. Dunham should have waited to wear the Louboutin shoes until she was wearing… Continue Reading

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

By on Posted in Advertising, Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks

Those of you with an interest in cosmetics or trainwrecks have perhaps noticed the trademark dispute that has boiled over regarding Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian’s use of “Khroma” in their cosmetic line.   Apparently, the sisters have run into double, double, toil and trouble because there were preexisting marks of “Chroma” and “Kroma” used in… Continue Reading

Supreme Court Upholds Nike’s Promise to “Break the Wrist, and Walk Away”

By on Posted in Articles, Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks

Not every day does the United States Supreme Court weigh in on a topic impacting the trademark world, but it did so yesterday in Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc., a case illustrating what can happen when a trademark plaintiff wants to pull the plug and end the lawsuit it started in a walkaway (or as martial arts instructor… Continue Reading

Batmobile: The Copyright Rises

By on Posted in Copyrights, Infringement, Law Suits, Patents, Product Configurations

Over the weekend, I saw an article in the Hollywood Reporter (which incidentally likes to quote our very own Catlan McCurdy, like here and here) discussing the copyright dispute over the 1966 Batmobile.  Warner Brothers and its subsidiary DC Comics sued the owner of Gotham Garage for trademark and copyright infringement of the Batmobile design. … Continue Reading

Kickstarting Your Trademark Portfolio

By on Posted in Articles, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Technology, Trademarks, USPTO

– Draeke H. Weseman, Weseman Law Office, PLLC 68,929 Backers.  $10,266,845 Pledged.  10,266% Funded. The stat line above describes “Pebble,” a project to build blue-tooth enabled watches with e-paper screens that display information from synchronized mobile phones.  The project is the highest funded project in the history of Kickstarter, a crowd-funding platform started in 2009. … Continue Reading

THQ Goes Down

By on Posted in Copyrights, Fair Use, Infringement

As 2012 winds down and we all recover from what I’m sure was a wonderful Festivus celebration (I know I’m still feeling the effects of a particularly bloody Feats of Strength and an overly ambitious Airing of Grievances directed at me by my family members), it seems time to wrap-up last month’s post about a tattoo artist who sued… Continue Reading

Mixed Chicks Scores Big

By on Posted in Infringement, Law Suits, Product Packaging, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

It’s not every day that a small company stands up for itself against a multi-billion dollar company in court, and manages to obtain a large verdict in the process, but this is precisely the Cinderella story that played out in a trademark and trade dress infringement case in California recently.  When Mixed Chicks, LLC (“Mixed Chicks”) sued Sally… Continue Reading

Design Patent Flexes Muscles

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Idea Protection, Infringement, Law Suits, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Patents, Product Configurations, Technology, USPTO

- Jeffrey Stone and Brett Klein, Patent Attorneys, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. The design patent is perceived by many designers and patent attorneys as being a relatively weak and impotent patent protection mechanism as compared with the better-respected utility patent. It is typically thought that design patents are only useful in protecting against exact copies…. Continue Reading