A little nominative trademark fair use might have saved these little gems from going right back to Costco, as gently used merchandise, with opened and not so gently mangled packaging to boot:
Little did I know when grabbing this impulse item at Costco over the weekend (without my expert child companions) that — after anxiously
-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
-Wes Anderson, Attorney
In the media, misstatements and misunderstandings of trademark law are legion. Even the New York Times counts itself among the latest offenders.
The Old Grey Lady’s recent article about presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump closed with the following:
Records show just one Goldman employee, a financial adviser in the
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
-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
– 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
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
— 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
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
– Laurel Sutton, Senior Strategist & Linguist at Catchword Brand Name Development
CES 2016 (January 6-9, 2016) has come and gone, and, as always, offered up a rich selection of new product and company names for analysis (and occasional mockery). Questionable name choices for “innovative” products pop up every day, but only at CES