When I first heard last week about a trademark infringement lawsuit between Energizer and Duracell over pink bunny icons, my first thought was, Duracell is The Copper Top battery brand, what would motivate Duracell and how could Duracell possibly believe it had the legal right to use a pink bunny character in advertising and
A Fine Mess: YouTube’s Reaction to REACT
-Wes Anderson, Attorney
In the world of YouTube, subscriber count is king. With over 14 million subscribers, the Fine Brothers seemed at the forefront of new media. But earlier this month, the Internet’s collective scorn for a trademark portfolio sent the Fine Brothers’ subscription count tumbling.
If you haven’t been following Benny and Rafi Fine
A Meaningful Shift in Super Bowl Ads
-Martha Engel, Attorney
The Super Bowl ads this year were much like the game itself – maybe one remarkable catch, a few fumbles, and heavy on defense. Some even deserved a penalty flag – like the one for toe fungus and the revolting puppy-monkey-baby (and I’m an avid Diet Mountain Dew drinker). However, there were
Rethinking Our Professions, and Unlocking New Value for Businesses
– Jason Sprenger – President, Game Changer Communications
“Ummm…you’re those people who get their clients in the newspaper?”
“Oh yeah, you guys throw some great parties!”
“You’re the pros who people call when they’re in trouble and they need to make it all go away.”
“Huh? You do advertising, right?”
Believe it or not, these
Super Bowl Ads, and More Super Bowl Ads?
What is a Super Bowl ad? Typically a Super Bowl ad refers to the ad of a brand that has paid lots of money to air its ad on network television during the Super Bowl, a/k/a The Big Game.
Apparently there are some NFL guidelines CBS had to follow as it began to receive
Nominative Fair Use, as Illustrated by Colorful Balls
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
If you watch any amount of T.V. or happened to catch either of the AFC or NFC Championship games last weekend, you’ve probably seen one of the recent cell phone carrier ball commercials.
Initially, Verizon created this commercial, wherein a series of colorful balls rolling down a ramp are used
Negative Look-For Advertising Statements
Loyal readers know how important look-for advertising can be in making the difference between establishing trademark ownership in the shape or configuration of a product, and being left with nothing but a goose egg (as opposed to a Big Green Egg). That’s not to say, the clunky words “look-for” are required, yet something equivalent
iPhone 6, Can You Say Nominative Fair Use?
We cover a lot of topics related to nominative fair use of trademarks, see here, here, and here for some of those discussions. Does the example below on product packaging from J. Crew qualify for fair use of the iPhone 6 mark?
The International Trademark Association would say so: “In general, the
Self-Inflicted Cuts That Can Kill a Trademark?
We have some razor sharp readers and guest bloggers. We’re deeply thankful and especially grateful when our readers and guest bloggers send us real life illustrations of marketing pitfalls we’ve identified, sliced and diced here on DuetsBlog. They provide more great teaching tools.
Hat tip to our own James Mahoney of Razor’s Edge Communications for
How Many Ways Can a Trademark Be, Cool?
To the extent you’re also all about brands and trademarks, and you imagine a trademark story with each brand you might encounter, I suppose there are an infinite number of ways, right?
One of the Peace Coffee shops in our office building offers K’UL chocolate, and the point of sale display caught my eye,