Collaborations in Creativity & the Law ®
-Martha Engel, Attorney
I consider myself to be, among other things, a craft beer attorney. I enjoyed speaking last week at the Midwest Craft Brewers Conference as part of a great panel on brand positioning, trademarks, and the use of social media in the craft beer industry, and will be part of a continuing legal…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
Last week was rough. We went from celebrating America to watching her at her worst. We saw officers shoot two black men in Baton Rouge, LA and Falcon Heights, MN, a black man shoot cops in Dallas, and resulting social unrest (including my hometown police being hit with concrete last weekend and…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
The never-ending battle at the Trademark Office over trademarks for beer and wine suffered another casualty last week, this time over the mark DUO. Applicant Uinta Brewing Company filed a use-based application to register DUO for beer. Fun fact: the Utah-based brewery owns a trademark registration for TINDER for “beer.”
Uinta Brewing…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
The British are leaving! The British are leaving! Many people on all sides of “the pond” last week watched the Brits’ vote to leave the European Union with interest, and were shocked when they actually voted to cut ties with the EU. The vote was often referred to by the doomsday name…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
One of the biggest issues facing electric car manufacturers is how quiet they are. So quiet in fact that 60 Minutes edited in an engine roar to its Tesla story. The quiet can have dangerous consequences for pedestrians and others. Riding my bike, I often listen for the sound of an…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
It’s rare that we focus on descriptions of goods or services here, but one of the most common reasons that a trademark for a brewery or winery is refused registration at the Trademark Office comes down to the description of services. “Brewery services” and “winery services” are popular descriptions often used by…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
My home state of Minnesota prides itself primarily on three things: our ability to withstand our winters, our 10,000 lakes, and our dearly beloved Prince. While we take a beating when it comes to our sports teams, all of his purple life we had Prince. Just like you might do for your…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
Government approval of commercial speech has been a hot topic of discussion by trademark nerds here and elsewhere in light of recent decisions regarding the Redskins and The Slants marks. As those decisions proceed up through the appeal channels to the Supreme Court, attention has been drawn to whether or not a…
-Martha Engel, Attorney
Here’s hoping your 2016 brackets did better than mine last week, but this has been quite a crazy and exciting tournament thus far. As a Marquette fan, the Indiana–Notre Dame–Wisconsin area of the bracket has been quite disheartening. And the buzzer beaters galore this tournament have left many…
-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…