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Category Archives: Trademarks

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BIG GINGER Trademark Dispute

Posted in Branding, Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Trademarks

Twin Cities quasi-celebrity Kieran Folliard grabbed headlines this week by suing the owners of Jameson Irish Whiskey, Pernod Ricard, for trademark infringement.  Folliard is well known in the Twin Cities for founding a chain of pubs, including Cooper, Kieran’s Irish Pub, The Liffey, and The Local.  Of these, The Local serves a locally well-known drink… Continue Reading

Louboutin Red-Sole & Surrounding Contrast: An Implied Trademark Limitation

Posted in Articles, Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, International, Law Suits, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

The Louboutin lacquered red sole trademark is the subject of great debate in the trademark world, fashion industry, popular news media, and among law school academics and friends of the court. I’m just not seeing it. I really don’t see a viable trademark claim here for Louboutin. Not for the reasons found by the district court — I… Continue Reading

I’m Dye-ing to Know

Posted in Advertising, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight

For those of you who frequent DuetsBlog, you’ll know that color trademarks are a common topic of discussion. Steve Baird posted an excellent and thought provoking post just recently discussing Louboutin’s efforts to litigate the boundaries of its rights in the color red. It is generally accepted that color trademarks can receive protection upon obtaining ”secondary meaning” (i.e…. Continue Reading

Louboutin Red: Blending Into the Background

Posted in Branding, Fair Use, Infringement, Law Suits, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Trademarks

A purely hypothetical puzzle, but I’m wondering, would Christian Louboutin have a viable trademark claim if Yves Saint Laurent sold women’s shoes in boxes bearing the above seemingly random grid of letters, each letter having equal type, style, font, color and emphasis? For those of you who answered with a strong “of course not,” I suspect your answer must change if selected… Continue Reading

Does the Trademark Office Need a Trademark Attorney?

Posted in Counterfeits, Infringement, SoapBox, Trademarks

A few times each year, clients will call or write and inquire about some official-looking correspondence they’ve received about a trademark registration or application.  That happened this week, and here’s the top portion of the official-looking correspondence (redacted): You can see the full page here.  If you read the fine print, this letter from the… Continue Reading

Chevy Silverado Super Bowl Ad

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

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

Not a Merchandising Masterpiece

Posted in Television, Trademarks

One of my favorite shows on TV right now is Downton Abbey.  No mere period drama, this Masterpiece Theatre presentation has become something of a sleeper sensation, partly for its swooning melodrama and partly for its (some would say romanticized) illustration of the English class system, following the upstairs-downstairs lives of the denizens of a… Continue Reading

Redefining a Trademark Bully?

Posted in Almost Advice, Articles, False Advertising, Mixed Bag of Nuts, SoapBox, 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

Grab Some Buds and Pop a Red Top (or Tab)?

Posted in Branding, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Trademarks

Given how much we know you enjoy the subject of non-traditional trademark protection, here is a recent one from Anheuser-Busch: The description of the mark reads: “The mark consists of a design feature of product packaging, namely, a red colored tab on a can, which features a crown design that is transparent. The dotted lines… Continue Reading

Clap Your Hands if You Believe in Fairies (Food)

Posted in Trademarks

I celebrated Christmas in Wisconsin for the first time this year, and in addition to trying new beers and gallivanting around Milwaukee, I was introduced to a delicacy I had yet to encounter in life: fairy food. Fairy food, for those non-believers, is a chocolate candy, with a sponge-like center made from corn syrup and… Continue Reading

College vs. Pro: Battle for Logo Use?

Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Trademarks

As a long-time Green Bay Packer fan (and, more recently, owner), I’ve always had an innate dislike of our old NFC Central and other-team-named-after-a-body-of-water rival, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When I learned this fall that those very same Buccaneers slapped my alma mater, Beloit College, with a cease-and-desist letter in the late-1990s, Tampa Bay attained a… Continue Reading

When it Comes to Guest Blogging: Fine or Just Fine?

Posted in Branding, False Advertising, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Trademarks

In many contexts of our life experience, "fine" sadly seems to have drifted toward embodying mediocrity. Consider this all too common dialogue: "How are you?" "Oh, I’m fine."  Or, perhaps, "Just fine." Translation: "O.K.," "average," "acceptable," "passable," "satisfactory," "I can’t complain," "I’ve been better," or maybe "could be much better" . . . . After all, how interested or… Continue Reading

Lacking Credibility

Posted in Almost Advice, Branding, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Trademarks

I’ll have to say, I really enjoyed Aaron Keller’s guest post from yesterday. In addition to the valuable insights he provided, it got me thinking about some perhaps unrelated, but parallel topics of likely interest to legal and marketing types. Aaron wrote about the importance of a brand being honest with itself and others. He expressed the need… Continue Reading

Webinar: Hot Marketing Topics with Trademark & Legal Implications

Posted in Branding, Genericide, Guest Bloggers, Look-For Ads, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Product Packaging, Trademarks

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of participating in a ninety-minute webinar with my good friend, frequent and eloquent guest-blogger on DuetsBlog – Aaron Keller of Capsule – complete with some friendly banter on the following: "Hot Marketing Topics with Trademark and Legal Implications." Minnesota Continuing Legal Education has generously provided a link where the webinar can be viewed in its entirety, here. As you’ll… Continue Reading

INTA Seeks to Aid in Protection of Color Trademark

Posted in Law Suits, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Trademarks

The International Trademark Association (“INTA”), formerly known as the United States Trademark Association (USTA), has been around since 1878—longer than the color trademark and high-end designer shoes.  It is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the support and advancement of trademarks and related intellectual property concepts as essential elements of trade and commerce.  This important organization… Continue Reading

Top-Level Domain Names as Trademarks

Posted in Branding, Domain Names, Marketing, Trademarks

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board recently issued a precedential decision upholding the Trademark Office’s refusal to register five applications for the mark .MUSIC in connection with a variety of goods and services, holding that .MUSIC is merely descriptive of the goods and services.  A PDF copy of the decision is here.  A company called theDot Communications… Continue Reading

Occupy.

Posted in Trademarks

You know how when you say a word over and over again, or stare at it long enough, it stops making ordinary sense and starts becoming something else?  To some extent, that’s how I’m beginning to feel about “occupy.” Regardless of what you may think about the movement – that it is democracy in action… Continue Reading