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Tag Archives: Descriptiveness

Messin’ With Google

By on Posted in Advertising, Genericide, Law Suits, Marketing, Search Engines, Television, Trademarks

What does Google have in common with Sasquatch? Well, perhaps one possible point of similarity is that if you mess with either, you might get yourself seriously messed up in the process. With respect to the defensive power of Sasquatch, a local Wisconsin business success story, Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, has gotten much notoriety with its series of hilarious 30-second television… 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

Duck Duct Debate

By on Posted in Branding

  Every once in awhile I run across a product and find myself wondering… why did they name it this?  I recently ran across the Duck Tape brand shown below.  My first reaction was “duck” is a commonly misused term to identify what should be called “duct” tape, and this brand owner interestingly chose to… Continue Reading

Trademark Bully Baloney?

By on Posted in Branding, Trademarks

In the wake of all the discussion and debate over "trademark bullying," NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses), the self-proclaimed Voice of Small Business, recently offered its members and followers "5 Steps to Avoid Corporate Trademark Bullying": Do Your Homework; Choose a Descriptive Business Name; Use Common Sense; Consider Buying Intellectual Property Insurance; and When in Doubt,… Continue Reading

Primitive & Impolite, But Non-Vulgar Trademark & Naming Technique?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Trademarks

On a recent pilgrimage to my home town to visit the University of Iowa and to see the Hawkeyes play football again in hallowed Kinnick Stadium, I discovered that a rather rudimentary and perhaps impolite (or potty mouth), yet passionate (sorry Nancy) branding technique, is alive and kicking in Iowa City. I also learned what now appears to go hand-in-hand (or, perhaps leg-in-hands as… Continue Reading

Wanted: Experienced Trademark Attorney?

By on Posted in Trademarks

A couple of days ago, I promised to try and make the case for why the State of Minnesota ought to hire an experienced trademark attorney. OK, so I’m a day late, but you can decide if I’m a dollar short too. By the way, it was the federal trademark registration record for the below mark… Continue Reading

Taking Branding Cues from Q in the Single-Letter Trademark Queue

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Trademarks, Truncation

Welcome to another edition of AlphaWatch (the next one in our queue), where we explore the reach of single-letter trademarks, this time focusing on the letter Q and the single-letter branding cues it might suggest to consumers: Are you able to name the un-truncated version of this single-letter mark and brand? My daughter could. The answer is… Continue Reading

Seth Godin on Subtlety: The Trademark Perspective

By on Posted in Branding, Goodwill, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Trademarks

Seth Godin’s recent post entitled Subtlety, deconstructed, struck a chord with me, and should strike a chord with all trademark types and the brand owners they represent. Here is my favorite excerpt: Subtle design and messaging challenge the user to make her own connections instead of spelling out every detail. Connections we make are more powerful than… Continue Reading

Get a Load of This: General Mills Takes Offense in Trademark Spat Over Spuds

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

          They say that the best defense is a good offense. It appears that General Mills has adopted this strategy in a recent trademark dispute over the term LOADED in connection with instant potatoes. Just yesterday, the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal reported the filing of a federal district court lawsuit by General Mills against Idahoan Foods, in which… Continue Reading

Which “Would You Rather” Would You Rather Play?

By on Posted in Branding, Dilution, Law Suits, Trademarks

A couple of weeks ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court that had held that the federally registered trademark "WOULD YOU RATHER . . . ?" was merely descriptive as applied to books and games.  (PDF of appellate opinion here.)  Briefly, the facts are that Falls Media owns the aforementioned trademark registration,… Continue Reading

Pizza Branding Goes Back to the Basics

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

Guest Blogger Anthony Shore of Operative Words, recently wrote about the naming pendulum swinging away from arbitrary names and back toward brand names having an honest, straightforward, and even humble quality, in Truth is Stronger Than Fiction. Another way of saying it might be: naming is going back to the basics. I recently came across a good example… Continue Reading

Grilling Some Barbecue Brands

By on Posted in Branding, Loss of Rights, Trademarks

As evidenced on these very pages over the past year or so, there does seem to be a general divide between legal types and marketing types about the desirability of descriptive trademarks and brands.  This is understandable.  There is a direct tension here.  More descriptive marks and brands carry more information to a consumer and… Continue Reading

Texas Toasted? How to Slice the Trademark Spectrum of Distinctiveness

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

  v.      Texas Toast is the generic name for a type of bread, you know, the big thick double-cut slices. Anyone can call their bread Texas Toast if that is what they are selling, and, by the way, it doesn’t have to be toasted for the name to fit. But, what if you’re selling a product made from bread, say, croutons?… Continue Reading

Another Marketing Pitfall: How to Crush a Smashing Brand Name & Trademark

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Trademarks

Last week we blogged about the dreaded D-Word and how some marketers unwittingly undermine trademark rights in a brand name by explaining that the name "describes" or is "descriptive" of the goods or services sold under the brand. We also have blogged about the danger of "taking a suggestive name, mark, or tag-line, and using it descriptively in… Continue Reading

What a Crock, Pot That Is . . .

By on Posted in Branding, Genericide, Infringement, Keyword Ads, Law Suits, Marketing, Search Engines, Trademarks

We’re not talking the foamed footwear Crocs® that Randall Hull wrote about in his What a Croc! post from a couple of weeks ago. Instead, we’re talking slow cookers — on this snow-capped Valentine’s Day in the Twin Cities. Every once in a while a stroll down the grocery store aisle leaves me surprised when… Continue Reading

The D-Word: What Ever You Do, Don’t “Describe” Your Brand!

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

Frequently brand owners find themselves in the position of wanting or needing to explain the thinking behind their name, mark, and/or brand. Sometimes the explanations appear publicly on product packaging, websites, catalogs, brochures, advertising, and frequently in press releases, or perhaps in statements to reporters, especially when trademark litigation concerning the brand is involved. Such explanations about the brand’s… Continue Reading

Exploring Alternative Spellings

By on Posted in Almost Advice, Branding, Marketing, Trademarks

I recently came across a catalog for a company that sells "modular floorcovering" — probably better known as "carpet squares."  (They actually sell more than squares, but I digress.)  The brand?  FLOR.  FLOR?  Cue kneejerk trademark attorney reaction:  "FLOR?  Are you kidding me?  I bet they had a heckuva time getting that registered!"  Well, they… Continue Reading

Trademark Specimens of Use: A “Necessarily Subjective” Standard

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Product Packaging, Trademarks, TTAB

John Welch, over at the TTABlog, reported on a recent trademark specimen of use case (pdf here); one near and dear to my heart, since I represented the Applicant seeking to register the composite word-only mark DELI EXPRESS SAN LUIS for sweet rolls. At issue in the case was whether the product label specimen (appearing below) shows use of the… Continue Reading

Taking the Cake With Suggestive Trademarks?

By on Posted in Branding, Food, Marketing, Sight, Trademarks

John Reinan provided yesterday a marketer’s perspective that questioned the value of coined trademarks. In my experience, as a trademark type, one place on the spectrum of distinctiveness where both trademark and marketing types can have their cake and eat it too, is the delicious category of suggestive trademarks. From the legal side of the coin, suggestive… Continue Reading

Wrestlers and Enophiles: Let’s Get Ready to RUMBLE!!!*

By on Posted in Branding, Dilution, Food, Trademarks

VS. Remarkably, this is not a new promotion for World Wrestling Entertainment.  No, a few outlets reported last week that WWE has opposed The American Wine Foundation’s application to register the trademark SOMMELIER SMACKDOWN for use in connection with "Entertainment services, namely, conducting contests in the field of food and wine pairing; Entertainment services, namely,… Continue Reading