As you may have guessed from our announcement yesterday, in bidding farewell to our talented colleague and fellow-blogger Karen Brennan, we are looking for someone who can attempt to fill Karen’s shoes as an associate attorney in the Intellectual Property Department at Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A. Our posting for the position on Bench & Bar of Minnesota is here. If you’re up to the… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Karen Brennan
Farewell to Karen Brennan
Posted in Mixed Bag of NutsIt is with great sorrow that we bid farewell to Karen Brennan, who is moving on to greener in-house pastures, as Corporate IP Counsel with United Health Group. Having said that, we fully recognize it is a wonderful and significant opportunity for Karen, so we wish her the very best in her new position. We will miss Karen’s significant… Continue Reading
The Nine-Word Copyright Opinion: Costco v. Omega
Posted in CopyrightsThe Supreme Court heard the appeal of Costco v. Omega, a copyright decision from the Ninth Circuit regarding the application of the first-sale doctrine to a foreign manufacturer who did not manufacture the goods in the U.S. or sell the goods directly to Costco. The outcome? The Supreme Court’s entire decision (available for viewing here) consisted of nine… Continue Reading
Shot in the Dark – the PPK Design Trademark
Posted in Advertising, Counterfeits, Famous Marks, Goodwill, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Sight, Television, Trademarks, TTAB—Karen Brennan, Winthrop & Weinstine I found Fig. 1 (from what I am sure was a very valuable patent, although I could not locate it) to be very fitting for this post. After three and half years, four Office Actions, a Petition to the Director and finally an appeal, our client’s product configuration mark for the… Continue Reading
Tradition Returns With Minnie and Paul
Posted in TrademarksI finally made it to a Minnesota Twins game to personally witness the mania surrounding Target Field. While I am not a huge baseball fan, I have to admit it was pretty great. One thing that grabbed my attention was the large, vintage-looking Twins sign in center field: The "Shaking Hands" logo represents fans (Minnie and Paul) from two cities… Continue Reading









