–Dan Kelly, Attorney

On a regular basis, we receive inquiries from clients about IP-related solicitations that they receive from third parties relating to things like renewing trademark registrations and domain names.  Typical solicitations are one-pagers with a patina of legitimacy, referencing a particular IP asset, the owner, then usually ending with the punch line of requesting a fee or payment for “registration” or some other official-sounding service.  (Example here.)

The Domain Name Strategy Blog (which you can now access at both domainnamestrategy.com and domainstrategy.com) wrote recently about a solicitation that they received from a company calling itself WIPD, an acronym for “World Intellectual Property Database.”  Some of you may know that there is a rather large organization in Europe called WIPO, or “World Intellectual Property Organization,” which is a U.N. organization that facilitates (or attempts to facilitate) an international IP system.  WIPO is a well-known and generally trusted organization in IP circles.

Below is a partial screen shot of the header on WIPO’s home page.  WIPO is the genuine article, the real deal.

Now here is a partial screen shot of the header from a WIPD solicitation:

The WIPD website is only a slightly less egregious ripoff of WIPO’s website.  Hit the jump to see those side-by-side.Continue Reading The World is Full of Scam Artists

Who says that being a large corporate trademark owner is one of the prerequisites to earning the emotionally-charged, pejorative, and ill-defined label “trademark bully“?

Well, the original directive to the USPTO appears to assume that “trademark bullying” is a one-way street, disfavoring only large corporate trademark owners, and ignoring the possibility

—Karen Brennan, attorney

I found Fig. 1 (from what I am sure was a very valuable patent, although I could not locate it) to be very fitting for this post.  After three and half years, four Office Actions, a Petition to the Director and finally an appeal, our client’s product configuration mark for the PPK

–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney

In the vast majority of trademark infringement suits reported in the press, plaintiffs – whether they are trademark owners suing third parties for the unauthorized use of a mark or are third party users asking for a judge to declare that their use of a mark is lawful – generally seek injunctive

–Dan Kelly, Attorney

Can you spot the genuine iPad?

Back in July, I blogged about my then-discovery that Apple did not own the federal trademark registration for iPhone.  Needless to say, when I heard about Apple’s new iPad product, I just had to see if they were out in front in securing trademark rights

–Dan Kelly, Attorney

Last week, a group calling themselves The Yes Men apparently perpetrated an elaborate hoax to usurp the corporate persona of the United States Chamber of Commerce, to the point of publishing a fake website and holding a press conference at the National Press Club, posing as the Chamber itself.   (Image

Luxo AS, a Norwegian light manufacturer and distributor, has sued Disney and Pixar et. al. asserting various trademark-related claims arising from Disney’s and Pixar’s use of the LUXO trademark.  In an always interesting case of trademark law/branding meets fair use, Luxo has alleged that Disney/Pixar’s use of "Luxo Jr." to identify the "hopping lamp," which has been the corporate mascot

I, like most women, want a present in a little blue box from Tiffany & Company (a/k/a Tiffany & Co.) This is not just because the company bears my name (I only wish I were an owner of the company), but because Tiffany & Co.’s exquisite jewelry is associated with the fabulous blue box.  Tiffany

–Sharon Armstrong, Attorney

French customs agents seized 10 tons of counterfeit chocolate bonbons. According to the French customs office, the chocolates were low-quality copycats of the Italian-made Ferrero Rochers. Popular in the U.S. as well as Europe, Ferrero Rochers candies are known for nestling in elegant, individual gold foil wrappers and then inside jewel-shaped clear