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
Tag Archives: Suggestive
The Galleria of Retail Jewelry Store Taglines
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Goodwill, Marketing, Television, TrademarksOn this Valentine’s Day, after enduring weeks of the same endless running of national retail jewelry chain advertising, leading up to this annually celebrated day of love and affection, I thought it might be fitting to try a few retail jewelry store taglines on for size and examine – at least from a trademark perspective – their protect-ability and likely placement on the… Continue Reading
Primitive & Impolite, But Non-Vulgar Trademark & Naming Technique?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, TrademarksOn 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
Taking Branding Cues from Q in the Single-Letter Trademark Queue
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Trademarks, TruncationWelcome 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
Posted in Branding, Goodwill, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, TrademarksSeth 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
Environmentally Friendly Brands: Blue A Cleaner Choice Than Green
Posted in Branding, Trademarks, TTABAre you able to identify BlueCar from these two images? How about green, do you see a green car here? And, no, we’re not testing for envy or color blindness. Easy, right? Not so fast . . . .
Pizza Branding Goes Back to the Basics
Posted in Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, TrademarksGuest 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
Texas Toasted? How to Slice the Trademark Spectrum of Distinctiveness
Posted in Branding, Fair Use, Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarksv. 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
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, TrademarksLast 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
The D-Word: What Ever You Do, Don’t “Describe” Your Brand!
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, TrademarksFrequently 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
Trademark Specimens of Use: A “Necessarily Subjective” Standard
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Marketing, Product Packaging, Trademarks, TTABJohn 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?
Posted in Branding, Food, Marketing, Sight, TrademarksJohn 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
My Aha Moment
Posted in Branding, TelevisionIf you’ve been paying attention to the trademark front, you’ve probably heard that Oprah and Mutual of Omaha recently settled a small skirmish over the use of "aha moment." The skirmish was apparently ignited by Mutual of Omaha’s attempt to register "Official Sponsor of the Aha Moment." According to Oprah, she made the phrase famous… Continue Reading
A Memorial Day Suggestive Branding Challenge
Posted in Branding, Domain Names, Marketing, TrademarksMemorial Day is another example of successful re-branding: Memorial Day apparently used to be called Decoration Day. Although most appreciate and understand that this federal holiday since 1971 comes on the last Monday in May, there is a concern that "many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day." It is more than a three-day… Continue Reading
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Duets Blog Authors
Steve Baird
Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More...
Dan Kelly
You can call me a “non-traditional” attorney, which is a polite way of saying that I did not attend law school straight out of college. I spent five of my first six years after college as a junior high school teacher. The other year I worked as an engineer for a large corporation. More...
Sharon Armstrong
Voted most likely to become an actress while in pre-school, I don’t think I surprised anyone by becoming a lawyer, the steadiest professional gig open to those with a flair for the dramatic. More...
Brent Lorentz
Although I wish I could say my path to the law was the result of a lifelong dream or calling, it was more the result mere curiosity and an affinity for leather-bound books. More...
Catlan McCurdy
Having long been told by my parents that I could do or be anything I wanted, I chose at the age of 10 to become an attorney, as it was the career that would most likely lead me to my goal of becoming the first woman POTUS.More...
Tiffany Blofield
Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...
Brad Walz
My law career started on the ice…as a defensive hockey player (we’re not talking professionally…and if I were, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into law). More...
Susan Perera
Born into the world with an aptitude for science and an affinity for art I found my career path quickly chosen for me. More...
Joy S. Newborg
When I took a personality/career test in high school to determine which path in life I should follow, I was told I should either be in broadcast journalism or law. So after I went to undergraduate school for broadcast journalism and film/television, I went on to obtain my law degree from the University of Minnesota. More...
Laura Gutierrez
An attorney I am not. Though told to become one, I don't possess those qualities needed to be an effective one (I lack confrontation skills, and although I can write a great argumentative essay, I can’t argue outside a sheet of paper). More...