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Category Archives: Trademark Bullying

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NY ♥ TM

By on Posted in Advertising, Branding, Copyrights, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Idea Protection, Infringement, Marketing, SoapBox, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

Last week I stopped at a local wine and beer store to pick up a bottle of wine to bring to a friend’s dinner party (but also couldn’t resist purchasing a 4-pack of Surly’s Bitter Brewer. I had never seen it before, but highly recommend it). As I walked back to my car I noticed a pile of… Continue Reading

Nutty News: Dear Biggest Fan, Here’s a Cease-and-Desist Letter

By on Posted in Almost Advice, Branding, Domain Names, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Food, Social Media, Squirrelly Thoughts, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

You have to be one big fan of a company or product to establish a World {What-You-Cannot-Live-Without} Day.  Well, a sticky situation with the well-known hazelnut spread Nutella may have you rethinking your public affection. Back in 2007, Sarah Rosso (Nutella Fan) established World Nutella Day to celebrate her affection for Nutella.  Within the past… Continue Reading

The INTA “Trademark Bullying” Straitjacket

By on Posted in Advertising, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

This past week I’ve been pondering a question of great importance: When might a straitjacket double as a life vest? The answer actually arrived last Monday during INTA’s “The Ethics of Trademark Bullying” panel discussion at the 135th Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. In so many words, our good friend and wise guy Ron Coleman, over at… 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

Minnesota to Own “Trademark Bullies”

By on Posted in Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

Minnesota is positioned once again to take legislative ownership of the ”trademark bullying” debate. Putting aside the serious questions of whether new laws are needed and whether a state as opposed to a federal solution can have any meaningful impact, and despite the federal government’s recent focus on the perceived problem that ended in a whimper, Rep. Peppin appears… 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

Monster Cable Ordered to Pay Monster Daddy Attorneys Fees in Meritless Appeal

By on Posted in Contracts, Law Suits, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks, TTAB

Techdirt has written extensively about why Monster Cable is considered ”somewhat famous as a trademark bully.” Numerous comments to a TTABlog post reinforce this view. One of the examples Mike Masnick over at Techdirt has highlighted is a TTAB case we handled for a Monster Cable victim a few years back, reported here, with pleadings here. This victory led us… 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

Trademark Civility

By on Posted in Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Social Networking, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

About a week ago I had the honor and pleasure of once again presenting the annual trademark review at the 11th Annual Midwest IP Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with good friend and trademark guru Paul Mussell. And happily, TTABlogger John Welch once again graciously contributed the IP Book chapter on the Top Ten TTAB Cases. One… Continue Reading

Trademark Victims?

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

Hardly a day goes by without the media reporting on some sort of trademark dispute. Enter the need for a winner and a loser, a bully and a victim. You know the typical media drill by now, Goliath is the trademark owner and a guilty bully, and David, of course, is an innocent victim, lacking any personal responsibility whatsoever…. Continue Reading

Cease and Desist, Please

By on Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Sight, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

- Brent Carlson-Lee, President, Open Door Foods If you’re anything like me, you occasionally muse about being a celebrity. If I were a movie star, I’d gladly sign autographs – even while at a restaurant with my family. If I were the author of the hottest business book on the New York Times Best Sellers… Continue Reading

Trademark Hooliganism

By on Posted in Articles, Branding, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

A day doesn’t go by without my GoogleAlert spotting another online reference to some purported example of “trademark bullying.” It seems like just about any private assertion of trademark infringement will trigger the use of the term as a very public knee-jerk response. As you know, we’ve spilled a lot of ink, writing about the topic… Continue Reading

Tree Hugging Evidence of Successful Trademark Enforcement?

By on Posted in Infringement, Law Suits, Loss of Rights, Squirrelly Thoughts, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

It is not every day that tree rings are trending on Bing. This image got me thinking about how it might be an even better image to illustrate how effective trademark enforcement can impact the scope of trademark rights. As you may recall, I have illustrated this concept before using the perfectly regular concentric circles… Continue Reading

Godin on Trademark Bullying?

By on Posted in Branding, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, Infringement, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

Seth Godin is someone we follow closely here on DuetsBlog, and he has just weighed in on the “trademark bullying” topic. We haven’t always agreed with his trademark advice, especially his misapprehension of the benefits of federal registration. But, it’s hard to argue with this conclusion: “When a brand becomes a bully, it loses something… Continue Reading

Chick-fil-A’s Successful “Eat Mor Chikin” v. “Eat More Kale” USPTO Letter of Protest

By on Posted in Advertising, Articles, Branding, Dilution, Famous Marks, Food, Infringement, Marketing, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

As you will recall, we have followed pretty closely Chick-fil-A’s “Eat Mor Chikin” trademark claims against Vermonter Bo Muller-Moore and his “Eat More Kale” trademark: Eat More Anything? New York Times Covers “Eat More Kale” Trademark Dispute Chick-fil-A Goes Stealth in “Eat More Kale” Trademark Dispute? Chick-fil-A’s “Eat More” Stealth USPTO Trademark Enforcement Strategy Succeeds… Continue Reading

Minnesota’s Legislative Answer to “Trademark Bullying”?

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

Minnesota State Representative Joyce Peppin, is convinced that “trademark bullying” is a problem and that it requires a brand new law in Minnesota to properly deal with it. Representative Peppin apparently is a law student at William Mitchell College of Law, and she has teamed up with other students and William Mitchell law faculty to write and… Continue Reading

Using Corporate Judo to Beat Lance Armstrong – the World’s #2 “Trademark Bully”

By on Posted in Guest Bloggers, Trademark Bullying

—Jason Voiovich, jasonvoiovich@gmail.com Follow Jason on Twitter: @jasonvoiovich Follow Jason on Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/jasonvoiovich You’d think Lance Armstrong would know something about the power of positive karma.  As the survivor or testicular cancer and brain cancer (I can think of no two worse kinds), winner of seven grueling Tour de France races, and vindicated from doping… Continue Reading

How Fashionable is the Louis Vuitton “Trademark Bully” Label?

By on Posted in Articles, Branding, Copyrights, Counterfeits, Dilution, Fair Use, Famous Marks, First Amendment, Infringement, International, Marketing, Social Networking, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

There has been quite a flap surrounding the poster and invitation used by the University of Pennsylvania Law School to promote Penn Intellectual Property Group’s Fashion Law Symposium, scheduled for a week from tomorrow. The symposium appears to be designed as a serious affair, boasting an all-star cast of general counsel from the fashion industry, including those from… Continue Reading

Chick-fil-A Goes Stealth in “Eat More Kale” Trademark Dispute?

By on Posted in Branding, Food, Infringement, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

The question for the day is not, why did the chicken cross the road, but rather, why did the chicken file an ex parte Letter of Protest with the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Trademark Examination Policy at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), just a few months ago? To get to the other side of 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, Trademark Bullying, 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

Redefining a Trademark Bully?

By on Posted in Almost Advice, Articles, False Advertising, Mixed Bag of Nuts, SoapBox, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

We’ve spilled a lot of digital ink discussing the trademark bullying topic, going all the way back to my original blog post from 2010: ”The Mark of a Real Trademark Bully.” Within the last several days, there has been quite a bit of online media coverage about Trademarkia’s new features that tout an ability to “Find… Continue Reading

New York Times Covers “Eat More Kale” Trademark Dispute

By on Posted in Dilution, Food, Infringement, Trademark Bullying, Trademarks

Yesterday the New York Times ran a story on the “Eat Mor Chikin” v. “Eat More Kale” trademark dispute — the same one we covered a week ago: Eat More Anything? A couple of quotes from the NY Times article caught my eye: “In a statement, Chick-fil-A said, ‘We must legally protect and defend our ‘Eat mor… Continue Reading