As you know, I enjoy telling trademark stories about soaps encountered on my various trips: Lather® (brand) soap recently caught my eye — and the lens of my iPhone — while in Palo Alto. Interestingly, the USPTO has treated the word as inherently distinctive, in Lather’s registrations. In other words, not merely descriptive, even though using the product surely produces some…. Continue Reading
Tag Archives: Zero% Soap
A Zero Sum Game in the Trademark World?
Posted in Advertising, Articles, Branding, Genericide, Loss of Rights, Marketing, Product Packaging, SoapBox, USPTOWe’ve had a lot of nothing — meaning zero, and the trademark meaning, if any, of zero — on our mind lately, so imagine my surprise to see this soap “brand” for the first time last week in a hotel: Not sure how to pronounce it, but as we know, there really is no “correct”… Continue Reading
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Steve Baird
Just so you know, I'm all about brands and the law, both professionally and personally. I regularly annoy family and friends in retail stores by focusing on product labels—not to buy the product, but to read the fine print and ask, "Who owns these brands" and "Did they really register those marks?" More... 
Jessica Gutierrez Alm
I wasn’t planning to be a lawyer. At least that was my thinking as I began law school. This degree was going to give me a leg up in my efforts to enter the business world. Lawyers live in the grey — where there’s never a right answer, only possibilities — and the favorite lawyer answer for any seemingly yes-or-no question: “it depends.” More...
Tiffany Blofield
Although my initial career path was to be one of the Supremes (not the musically talented ones with platform shoes and sequins, but rather, the nine wearing sensible shoes and pressed black robes in DC), I will likely stay in Minnesota as I have never lived anywhere else. More...
Tucker Chambers
I’ve always been fascinated by brands, logos, slogans, and other creative works. I remember in my first year of middle school, asking my parents for the Adidas “three stripe” shoes to match my friends at school. More...
Martha Engel
I’ve always been passionate about smartly designed, cleverly branded, and well-crafted products – from cars to craft beer to fashion to gadgets. More...
Kyle Kroll
For me, creativity has always been a way of standing out from the crowd, doing the unexpected, and adding passion to my work. More...
Timothy Sitzmann
I have always considered myself to be a creative person. Full disclosure: I'm not claiming that I've created anything good, merely that I have created things that exist. More...
Draeke Weseman
People often ask me why my name is spelled the way it is. When I was born, my mother added an extra “e” in the middle to distinguish it from being confused with the word “drake,” meaning “male duck.” More...