–Susan Perera, Attorney
Earlier this week ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) approved a major change to top-level Internet domains (TLDs).
Soon we will no longer be limited to the standard 22 top-level domains including .com, .org, and .net. In fact, your brand could soon be its own top-level domain. For
–Susan Perera, Attorney
A few weeks ago I wrote about the use of unique colors in trademarks and logos as a potential way to differentiate your brand. Like using distinctive colors as part of a trademark, many companies use distinctive colors on their actual products to act as source identifiers.
While a color trademark for
–Susan Perera, Attorney
While passing through the bakery at our local grocery store I noticed this sign for HD Donuts. Donuts in high definition you ask? Nope, they’re just highly delicious.
Does it seem like every brand owner is trying to take advantage of the HD hype these days?
Even those brands that
–Susan Perera, Attorney
I recently read Nora Reed’s blog post, Locate your Brand on the Color Spectrum, on Logoblog. Nora identified a trend, which you may have noticed from time to time, that some industries tend to congregate in a specific color scheme.
For example, fast food logos tend to be in the red/yellow
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Every once in awhile I run across a product and find myself wondering… why did they name it this? I recently ran across the Duck Tape brand shown below. My first reaction was “duck” is a commonly misused term to identify what should be called “duct” tape, and this brand owner interestingly
–Susan Perera, Attorney
The Royal Wedding is only days away, Sharon and I have both blogged about it recently, and the Royal Family is certainly recieving a lot of media attention.
For a family and political tradition that Am
ericans often view as stuck in the past, the Royal Family has indisputably been embracing new
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Media spectacle, train wreck, or marketing bliss, it’s up to you, but you can’t escape the news about Charlie Sheen’s rambling webcasts, or the overnight success of his Sheen-isms. If you haven’t had your fill, feel free to take a moment at this website dedicated to sharing some of Sheen’s memorable statements.
–Susan Perera, Attorney
As you likely know, many of the Duets Blog bloggers were involved in a full day trademark CLE last week. One of the sessions focused on the issues facing private label brands and the line between identifying your competitor by using similar packaging and infringing on their trademark or trade dress.
Along
–Susan Perera, Attorney
It was time for a new kitchen faucet at our house and after opening the box of our new Delta faucet we noticed this image on the side panel of the box.
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The registration for this kitchen faucet product configuration mark (shown farthest to the right on the box) can be seen here.
As we have discussed previously, product configuration marks protect the distinctive design or shape of a product.
Product configuration marks generally require a showing that the configuration has acquired distinctiveness (serves as an identifier of source ) in order to be registered. In this case, that means the configuration above identifies Delta Faucet Company
Does it? Well, how about an exciting round of “Spot that Spout” to find out?
Below are a few different faucets available at your local home improvement store. So who makes these faucets, are they all Delta? And if not are they distinguishable from Delta’s product configuration registration?
Answers after the jump…
–Susan Perera, Attorney
Dusting off the archives, you may remember a 2009 blog post by Tiffany about a trademark infringement lawsuit initiated by Levi Strauss against Abercrombie & Fitch over the back pocket design on the respective parties’ jeans.
In that case the jury determined that the pocket designs, shown below, were not confusingly similar;