To the extent you haven’t yet had a chance to fully digest the significant rule changes about to go into effect in all pending TTAB (Trademark Trial and Appeal Board) cases at the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) on January 14, 2017, now is your chance to hear how they will impact
Houston (College of Law) Has a Problem
A trademark problem, that is, as reported by the Texas Tribune on Friday of last week.
Lest you be fooled by the above reference to Houston College of Law being established in 1923, the name has only been around since June of 2016.
In fact, when South Texas College of Law rebranded to
Federal Cannabis Laws Don’t Impede Patentability
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
While the Lanham Act bars the federal registration of trademarks related to illegal goods and services, there is no such prohibition against patenting illegal products or processes. However, the value of such patents is debatable.
State Legalization Leads to Increased Patent Applications
Marijuana is now legal, in some form, in
Worthwhile Uncomfortable Conversations
Seth Godin wrote this past weekend about joint ownership of creations:
“Before you create intellectual property (a book, a song, a patent, the words on a website, a design) with someone else, agree in writing about who owns what, who can exploit it, what happens to the earnings, who can control its destiny.”
We couldn’t
Trans-Pacific Intellectual Property
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a favored talking point among our presidential hopefuls—is an international trade agreement between twelve nations. The agreement was signed earlier this year, but is not yet ratified in most member countries including the United States. Negotiations took place over seven years and resulted in thirty dense
Blowing the Whistle on Trade Secrets: Employers Required to Provide Notice of Whistleblower Protections under DTSA
— Jessica Gutierrez Alm, Attorney
Last month, the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA) was signed into law. The DTSA provides remedies for trade secrets misappropriation, including a new federal cause of action, under which private companies can sue for trade secrets misappropriation. The DTSA allows a trade secret owner to seek actual damages,
ELLE Fails to Un-ring Bell, DJ Action Sticks
Question for the day, how common is the given name Elle? I’m really not sure, I don’t believe I’ve ever personally known anyone with that name, and Mongabay doesn’t even include Elle in its listing of girl’s first names, but it does rank Ella (210), Elena (412), Ellie (1198), Elly (2802), and Ellamae (3514)
Consent or Not, No Trademark Registration for Brewer’s TIME TRAVELER BLONDE Mark
-Martha Engel, Attorney
When an application has been refused registration in view of another’s prior filed mark, one way to resolve the issue is through a consent agreement wherein the registrant consents to the registration and the parties set out the reasons why the parties believe that there is no likelihood of consumer confusion between
Dude, It’s Gotten GNARLY for Beer and Wine
-Martha Engel, Attorney
Trademark issues regarding breweries and wineries are increasingly intertwined as both breweries and wineries grow, flower, and spread out throughout the country. I have talked before about the issues relating to a perceived likelihood of confusion between marks on beer used by breweries and marks on wine used by wineries (see here
Energizer Bunny to Drain Duracell’s Battery?
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