A belated thanks to Candice Kim and Professor Leah Chan Grinvald for sharing their insights and perspectives in our recent webinar on trademark bullying.
One topic we discussed is Backcountry.com’s recent back-down to backlash over its trademark enforcement activities concerning the Backcountry mark.
The example is a harsh reminder to trademark counsel of the
Some commands support trademark ownership (Just Do It), and others don’t.
As you know, I’m not a fan of the USPTO’s trend toward informational refusals, especially when the “evidence” more supports a mere descriptiveness refusal.
Having said that, this RENT ME informational command screams incapable:
Rent Me caught my eye,
One of my friends, when playing blackjack and asked to “cut the deck” after it has been shuffled, consistently admonishes without hesitation: “Thin to win.”
Given the trademark story for today, you may end up believing the opposite.
A 6-year trademark fight between Frito-Lay and Real Foods ended this month.
Frito-Lay opposed Real Foods’
‘Tis the season for gratitude and thankfulness, and avoiding conflict and fruitcake.
From a trademark perspective, every season is for avoiding genericness, right?
After all, generic designations are part of the public domain, they aren’t own-able.
So, why is Guaranteed Rate continuing to invest in Rate.com, found to be generic
When thinking about brands comprising religious matter, I think of EZEKIEL 4:9.
The EZEKIEL 4:9 brand has been registered as a trademark for bread since 1990.
The brand owner had to clear some chaff from the Principal Register to do so, threshing this EZEKIEL as abandoned, and gaining this EZEKIEL by assignment.
It presently
Now that we’re back in the blogging business, I’m anxious to be able to harvest some visual trademark stories captured on my iPhone over the past 7 months:
Are you surprised to see the federal registration symbol marking World’s Softest?
After all, the phrase seems to communicate important information about the socks in question, as
Let’s be very clear, today is April Fools’ Day, but this is not an April Fools’ Joke.
It’s not every day Seth Godin volunteers a guest post, but Thursday was that day.
Friday we published Stop Bullying the Entrepreneurs, 33 comments and counting.
This isn’t the first time Seth has spoken out against trademark
Let’s all hope that the Supplemental Trademark Register is not on the death watch.
It appears though to be on life support, at times, and especially with the USPTO’s heightened focus on “merely informational” matter, including laudatory messages.
This is a common basis for registration refusal nowadays: “Merely informational matter fails to function as a
If you have heard of Penn State, you have probably heard the phrase “Happy Valley.” The school, the students, and the media regularly use “Happy Valley” in reference to the school and the surrounding community. The school considers the association so strong that Penn State recently applied to register HAPPY VALLEY as a trademark
Does Sanas Health Practice Ltd. (“Sanas Health”) think that Daenerys or Sansa will win at the end of the wildly popular Game Of Thrones series and ultimately sit on the Iron Throne? Sanas Health filed two applications for the mark “QUEEN OF THRONES” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Interestingly, the Applicant’s