- Brent Carlson-Lee In the past six months, I have applied for a design patent and two trademarks – all food related. When I mention this, a common response is: “I wish I were creative or knowledgeable enough to come up with an idea worthy of patenting or trademarking.” My answer is invariably: “You are!”… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Taste
Subscribe to Taste RSS FeedYes, you can still wipe your Pierrade with Sopalin without risking trademark genericide (in France, that is)
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Genericide, Guest Bloggers, International, Law Suits, Loss of Rights, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Taste, Trademarks- Marie-Gwénaëlle Chuit As Steve frequently points out on this blog, trying to turn your trademark into a reference might lead to genericide, thus trademark owners should be very careful when walking this narrow line. The French IP law (CPI) demands that a trademark be distinctive to be considered valid (L.711.2 CPI), and that owners… Continue Reading
Baird on Branding & Trademarks
Posted in Advertising, Almost Advice, Branding, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksThere 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
Taste Infringement?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Infringement, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Taste, Trademarks, TTABWe’ve spent some time here discussing the world-famous Coca-Cola brand. Most recently, David Mitchell wrote about the incredible consistency of the Coca-Cola brand over the past 125 years. A while back Dave Taylor wrote a nice Ode to the Brand of Brands, the King of Cola: Coke. And, let’s not forget my humble suggestion that… Continue Reading
Webinar on Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sound, Color, Shape, Scent & More
Posted in Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksI’m happy to share with you that on Tuesday February 8, 2011, I’m speaking about one of my favorite topics, non-traditional trademarks, with my friends Linda McLeod of Finnegan Henderson and Stephen Feingold of Kilpatrick Townsend, in a webinar program put on by Strafford Publications, Inc. The webinar begins at 1:00 PM EST and Noon CST. Registration details… Continue Reading
A Dickensian Portrait of Christmas Day
Posted in Advertising, Food, Goodwill, Marketing, Mixed Bag of Nuts, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch–Dan Kelly, Attorney I’ve often thought that copy writers could do worse than to make a close study of some of Charles Dickens’ work. Perhaps too wordy a model for most copy, especially advertising and marketing copy, but he could paint a picture with words. [T]he people who were shovelling away on the housetops were… Continue Reading
Look for Reese’s “Perfect Mix”
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Famous Marks, Food, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Configurations, Product Packaging, Taste, Television, Trademarks–Dan Kelly, Attorney Earlier this week, Jason Voiovich commented on The Great Chocolate War between Hershey and Mars. We obviously have chocolate on the brain here this week. The company that brought you the product configuration trademark to the right has recently released the below commercial for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups–perhaps further establishing rights in… Continue Reading
Brand Signals: The Building Blocks of Brand Identity
Posted in Branding, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksBrands communicate with the world through a series of message delivery systems such as broadcast advertising, web sites, company representatives and product interaction. These systems utilize brand signals to communicate. While these signals commonly take the form of brand names and logos, they can also extend into sight, sound, touch, taste, smell or even action… Continue Reading
Exponential Growth in the New World of Social Media
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Guest Bloggers, Marketing, TasteThis post is not about candy bars or thoughts about whether the cross-section of a candy bar may function as a trademark, for that, see here. This brief post is about a 100 Grand Super Size thank you to all of our readers, those who submit comments, those who offer suggestions, those who follow us… Continue Reading
Non-Traditional Trademarks Revisited: Feel Me, Touch Me
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Copyrights, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksTommy has a lot to offer in advancing the recognition of certain kinds of non-traditional trademarks, especially touch marks. Yes, The Who’s tune from the Tommy Soundtrack "See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You" repeats these lyrics over and over: "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me."
Touch Trademarks and Tactile Brands With Mojo: Feeling the Strength of a Velvet, Turgid, Touch Mark?
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Food, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksLet’s revisit the topic of non-traditional "touch" trademarks today. Of all the traditional five human senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) and trademarks that can be perceived by one or more of those senses, touch, a/k/a tactile, a/k/a texture trademarks are just about as uncommon as any (taste, perhaps, being the least common). Indeed, back in 2006, Marty Schwimmer from The Trademark Blog… Continue Reading
Celebrate Your Freedom to Use Cheesy (ahem, Leafy) Puns
Posted in Branding, Famous Marks, Taste, Trademarks–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney With Independence Day just around the corner, perhaps it is time to reflect on some of the freedoms that we enjoy by residing in the land of purple mountains majesty. Freedom of speech? Check. Freedom of assembly? Check. Freedom to use other people’s trademarks, the very basis from which their brands spring, in descriptive and/or… Continue Reading
Discriminating Palettes
Posted in Food, Taste–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney I submit that when a multi-million dollar study finds that one of the “core aromas” of one of the top-selling wine varietals in the world consists of one of the foulest smells known to man AND a winery seizes the day to incorporate said core aroma into a distinctive brand name, there… Continue Reading
Barrel O’Fun Bags ‘Red Hot’ Chip Fight
Posted in Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Product Packaging, Sight, Taste, TrademarksAs you may recall, three weeks ago, I posted about what appeared to be the makings of a "Red, Hot, Chip Fight" between Old Vienna and Barrel O’Fun Snack Foods, over Barrel O’Fun’s use of "Red Hot Ripple" and other elements of trade dress claimed by Old Vienna (see here for my prior post and a side-by-side comparison… Continue Reading
Snack on This One: A Red, Hot, Chip Fight
Posted in Food, Infringement, Law Suits, Marketing, Product Packaging, Sight, Taste, TrademarksMinneapolis is the chosen venue for a brand new legal food fight, one involving potato chips. Putting aside for the moment that the proper test of trademark infringement is not based on a side by side comparison of products (unless, of course, they are encountered that way in the real world, as opposed to the… Continue Reading
But, is it Really Guinness?
Posted in Taste, Trademarks–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney It’s not even noon and I’ve already received e-mail forwards containing a fair share of leprechaun-themed tomfoolery, some of it quite enjoyable. And, as it does every year, the question of whether Guinness tastes better and/or different in Ireland than it does elsewhere has resurfaced. I confess I’m not much of a beer… Continue Reading
The Paradox of Brand Protection: Knowing When to Hit the Consumer Over the Head
Posted in Branding, Law Suits, Look-For Ads, Marketing, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Product Packaging, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksI often remind branding professionals that trademark law rewards their creativity. Some seem to perk up with this subtle encouragement. After all, everyone likes to be rewarded, right? Well, one of the unobvious rewards for creativity comes in the prompt timing of when trademark ownership begins. Being able to own and enjoy exclusive rights on… Continue Reading
Brands & Trademarks: Giving New Meaning to the Phrase “Stimulus Package”
Posted in Advertising, Branding, Non-Traditional Trademarks, Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, Touch, TrademarksThere is certainly a lot of buzz in the news these days about “Stimulus Packages” and how they might be utilized around the globe to spur economic growth and permit us all to resume our active pursuit of prosperity. Let us not forget that a brand (and the underlying trademarks that provide for the legal protection… Continue Reading
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...
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...
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...
Derek Allen
In hindsight, writing about creativity and the law may have always been in the cards for me. I began training for a career in litigation at an early age by finding ways to disagree with pretty much anyone about pretty much anything. In my longest-running “case,” I argued with my middle school math teacher, Mrs. Jabs, for the better part of four years over whether, even if I got the right answer, I had to show my work to get full credit. More...
Martha Engel
Although my interest in gadgetry and my aptitude for math eventually led me to become an engineer, my ad executive father and artistically gifted mother fostered an appreciation for the creative from a young age. More...
Anjali Shankar
When I was in elementary and middle school, I loved writing short stories. Creativity and imagination seem to come naturally to people when they are young. More...
Timothy Sitzmann
I have always considered myself to be a creative person. Full disclosure: I'm not claiming that I've created anything good, merely that I have created things that exist.More...
Cathleen Dahl
Trademarks and I met through a small job advertisement in the back of a local newspaper, and little did I know that I would spend the next 18 years (and counting) deriving a living from their existence and importance. More...