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Tag Archives: Nominative Fair Use

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

Parking Lot Lures & Twins Brand Bait?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Fair Use, Goodwill, Infringement, Marketing, Trademarks

Guys and gals on the street waiving orange flags aren’t the only parking lot lures in Twins Territory: We’ve talked before about how some of those doing business or advertising in close proximity to Minneapolis’ brand new Target Field – home to the Minnesota Twins – appear to see advantage in using the Twins name (and now logo, and/or trade… Continue Reading

The Meaning of “Readily Identified” in Trademark Nominative Fair Use

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Fair Use, Goodwill, Infringement, Marketing, Trademarks

We’ve talked a lot about the nominative fair use of trademarks. Remember the Cars.com billboard that used the Minnesota Twins name as brand bait? We had some discussion in the comments, where I said this about the Cars.com ad: Although the billboard doesn’t use the Twins script or logo, I still believe the stronger argument… Continue Reading

Fair Logo, Fair Use & Fair Politics? The Minnesota State Fair’s Trademark-on-a-Stick

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Copyrights, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, First Amendment, Food, Goodwill, Infringement, Marketing, Television, Trademarks

The newest fare at the Minnesota State Fair is not Camel-on-a-Stick, Buffalo-on-a-Stick, or any other kind of Food-on-a-Stick, but rather, Trademark-on-a-Stick. Earlier this week, the Minnesota State Fair (owned and operated by the Minnesota State Agricultural Society, a Minnesota State Agency) was hot to skewer the unauthorized use of its nearly three-decade-old and more recently trademarked logo, by incumbent Republican U.S. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, in a political ad… Continue Reading

Nominative Fair Use of Trademarks in Domain Names

By on Posted in Domain Names, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Infringement, Law Suits, Trademarks

Last month, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in the case of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. v. Tabari that asked whether the domain names buy-a-lexus.com and buyorleaselexus.com used in connection with automobile brokerage services infringed Toyota’s trademark rights in LEXUS.  Conventional legal wisdom is that only the owner of a trademark… Continue Reading

A Longer, Unnecessary Name for the Volvo Brand?

By on Posted in Advertising, Audio, Branding, Fair Use, Marketing, Trademarks

Someone who is in the business of repairing Volvo brand automobiles has the right to say so, in advertising, and elsewhere – without obtaining advance permission from Volvo – provided consumers aren’t likely to understand the advertisement or communication to mean that the repair services and/or the business providing them is authorized by, affiliated with, or otherwise connected to… Continue Reading

Ambush Marketing With A Twist of Twins Brand Bait?

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

 With the brand new outdoor Target Field located in downtown Minneapolis, the buzz is palpable, and there is certainly more foot and other forms of traffic, especially on the end of town closest to where the Minnesota Twins now play their home games. Given that increased traffic I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that some businesses will… Continue Reading

Nominative Fair Use?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Infringement, Marketing, Trademarks

I have asked the question before about the Google brand appearing in a Rapala billboard ad, here. I have asked it when 3M’s Post-It note appeared in an Accountemps billboard ad, here and here. Now I’m asking it again with a different brand and a different billboard ad: Does Morrie’s Automotive Group’s use of the Match.com brand… Continue Reading

The Sign of a Successful Trademark Enforcement Program

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

Unable to resist a good trademark story, I snapped this photo in one of the countless gift shops along Hollywood Boulevard, as my family searched for various stars and did the "Walk of Fame," a week or so ago. What drew us into this particular shop was a striking wall full of shelves displaying what appeared to be rows upon… Continue Reading

iPad, the Latest Brand Bait?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Infringement, Marketing, Product Configurations, Sight, Trademarks

Putting aside, for now, the unsettled question of who currently owns the iPad trademark, and Dan’s perspective on Apple’s trademark clearance strategies, from last week, look at what our finely-tuned e-mail spam filter just snagged: It is a similar story to my previous Free Dell XPS Laptop Spam Scam? blog post from last December. Here, however, the Apple, iPad, and the (possible) iPad configuration… Continue Reading

Is Wal-Mart Giving Away Free $1,000 Gift Cards?

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, Marketing, Trademarks

Same drill as yesterday. Another email spam scam? More trademark fair use abuse? Is it just me, or is the branded email spam coming out of the virtual woodwork, or what? It appears that spam email – complete with fully branded solicitations — is becoming more and more aggressive, both from legal and technology perspectives. We… Continue Reading

Fair Use of 3M’s Post-It Note?

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

This billboard ad has appeared in various locations around the Twin Cities for some time now.  Each time I saw it, I wondered whether it would be the last, given how vigilant 3M is in protecting its various trademarks and other intellectual property. This time, I had a camera handy to capture it. Now it’s time for some questions. Is there any… Continue Reading

Qwesting for a Good Billboard Location?

By on Posted in Advertising, Fair Use, Trademarks

I recently traveled to Omaha and noticed the following billboard: For those not familiar with these companies, Qwest Communications is a telecommunications company that services many western states.  Cox Communications is another relatively large telecommunications company.  Both serve the Omaha area.  The billboard is an example of nominative fair use, which Steve explained here.  While… Continue Reading

Rapala Fishing Lures: More Hits Than Google? Or, More Cats Than You Can Shake a Stick At?

By on Posted in Advertising, Fair Use, Marketing, Search Engines, Trademarks

Rapala, the world’s largest manufacturer of fishing lures has pleasured us with some pretty clever and creative advertisements over the years, a lot of them award-winning ads too. For example, Carmichael Lynch created the above billboard ad that over time gradually "attracted cats" to the billboard featuring a super-sized Rapala minnow fishing lure. Lots of cats, in fact, many more… Continue Reading

Picking Levi’s Pocket or Nominative Fair Use?

By on Posted in Advertising, Almost Advice, Branding, Fair Use, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

We have had somewhat of an unplanned blue jeans theme here at DuetsBlog, with Karen blogging about the upside down triangle logo associated with Guess designer jeans from the 1980s, here, and Tiffany blogging about Levi Strauss and Abercrombie & Fitch butting heads, here. My turn now to talk about a blue jean brand, along with airbrushing, non-traditional… Continue Reading