Someone who is in the business of repairing Volvo brand automobiles has the right to say so, in advertising, and elsewhere — without obtaining advance permission from Volvo — provided consumers aren’t likely to understand the advertisement or communication to mean that the repair services and/or the business providing them is authorized by, affiliated with, or otherwise connected to
Before and After (Billboard Ads)
Before we asked whether the Accountemps billboard makes fair use of 3M’s Post-It note and canary yellow trademark:
After (as in today):
Now, I’m not taking credit (or blame, depending on your perspective), I’m just saying, we noticed the change and thought you should too.
Nominative Fair Use?
I have asked the question before about the Google brand appearing in a Rapala billboard ad, here.
I have asked it when 3M’s Post-It note appeared in an Accountemps billboard ad, here and here.
Now I’m asking it again with a different brand and a different billboard ad: Does Morrie’s Automotive Group’s use of
Surface Level Branding Runs Deep on This Athletic Field
To sports fans of this university, December has been a big month because their beloved team finished the 2009 regular football season undefeated (13-0) once again, winning yet another post-season BCS bowl game bid. Next month will be even bigger news if their WAC team happens to defeat TCU in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. To trademark types, however, the biggest news of all is what this university was able to accomplish last month at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
You might be surprised to learn (I was) that the above image is the drawing associated with the single color trademark ("the mark consists of the color blue used on the artificial turf in the stadium") that this university was able to federally register in connection with: "Entertainment services, namely, the presentation of intercollegiate sporting events and sports exhibitions rendered in a stadium, and through the media of radio and television broadcasts and the global communications network." Hat tip to Brad Frazer of the Hawley Troxell firm, in Boise, Idaho.
Quick question, how does one render entertainment services in connection with a single-color trademark through the "media of radio broadcasts"? Does oral reference to the blue turf on the radio constitute use of the mark in commerce?
In any event, the identity of the university in question, is revealed below the jump, and it is, of course:
Continue Reading Surface Level Branding Runs Deep on This Athletic Field
Does Your Eye Spy A Canary?
A couple of weeks ago I posted an Accountemps billboard advertisement that prominently features what appears to be a 3M Post-it brand removable adhesive note, and I asked whether it constitutes fair use, and whether 3M’s permission is necessary to run the advertisement, since 3M owns a federal trademark registration for the color "canary yellow" in connection with these notes.
As the comments to that post reveal, some recognize the billboard image as a 3M Post-it note, and believe permission should be required to run the ad, others were unaware that 3M has a trademark on the color canary yellow, others believe that yellow adhesive notes are generic, and several apparently believe that even if the billboard depicts a 3M canary yellow Post-it note, no permission should be required. In fact, several pointed out that yellow adhesive notes can be obtained from a variety of sources, raising the question of how close those shades of yellow are to 3M’s trademarked canary yellow?
So, just for you, I collected six different pads of yellow-colored adhesive notes and fixed them to a dark green background for a little follow-up quiz. Can you identify any "canary yellow" and name the sources of the six different yellow adhesive notes shown below (answers below the jump)?
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Fair Use of 3M’s Post-It Note?
This billboard ad has appeared in various locations around the Twin Cities for some time now.
Each time I saw it, I wondered whether it would be the last, given how vigilant 3M is in protecting its various trademarks and other intellectual property. This time, I had a camera handy to capture it.
Now it’s time for some questions.
Is there any
Medline Industries, Inc. v. 3M Company (False Advertising Complaint Attached)
![[Item]: Sterillium Surgical Hand Scrub, 1000mL [Additional Info]: STERILLIUM SURGICAL HAND SCRUB, WATERLESS, SCRUBLESS,, COMPARE TO AVAGARD AND TRISEPTIN. STERILIUM IS NON-STICKY, DRIES FASTER AND PROTECTS HANDS. VERY COMPETITIVE. BEST SELLER IN EUROPE](https://www.duetsblog.com/files/2009/08/21DTWCNB60L._SL500_AA280_.jpg)
v. 
(Medline Sterillium Rub) (3M Avagard Surgical Scrub)
In a very recent false advertising lawsuit, Medline Industries is all lathered up, alleging that 3M Company is playing dirty in the surgical hand antiseptic marketplace by making false and misleading statements in advertising about 3M’s Avagard brand surgical scrub and Medline’s competing Sterillium Rub brand surgical