If you know about “fast fashion,” you surely have heard of the Chinese fast-fashion giant, Shein. It is a favorite of those who desire cheap clothing in a seemingly infinite and ever-changing selection of styles. Despite, and perhaps partly because of its worldwide dominance and popularity, Shein has been a magnet for legal and ethical accusations, including trademark […]
All posts by: Adam Garson
X-treme Rebranding
August 3, 2023
Trademark
The big rebranding news this month is Elon Musk’s renaming Twitter to, yes, you probably know already, X. You may ask, can you even file a trademark registration for a single letter? The answer is definitely “yes” so long as the mark is distinctive for the class of goods and services it is registered to identify. Just […]
The U.S. Supreme Court has rendered only 15 trademark opinions since 1924. So, it is always noteworthy when the Court considers a trademark case. This term, as we anticipated, the Court rendered its decision in the Jack Daniel’s trademark infringement case. We’ve been following this case since 2020 so you may recall the facts but here’s a refresher: VIP Products (“VIP”) sells, […]
Liberate TACO TUESDAY! Who Owns It Anyway?
June 8, 2023
Trademark, Uncategorized
Given the weighty domestic and foreign news of the day, trademark wars shouldn’t be capturing as much media attention as has the recent kerfuffle over the mark “TACO TUESDAY.” But it has. If you haven’t heard, Taco Bell, LeBron James, and some restaurant establishments are fighting over ownership of the trademark rights to TACO TUESDAY. […]
In many parts of the world, authors and artists also own “moral rights” in their works. Moral rights include the “right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work.” The “right to integrity” means that right to object to the “distortion, or […]
Paparazzi Find a New Profit Center
May 22, 2023
Copyright
Did you know that there has been a spate of lawsuits filed against celebrities for using unlicensed photographs of themselves? It’s true. The list of defendants is a Who’s Who of social media, including Deshaun Watson, Justin Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski, Lebron James, Gigi Hadid, Katy Perry, Khloe Kardashian, and the list goes on. With the […]
Long-Arm Reach of U.S. Trademark Law
May 11, 2023
Trademark
The Long-Arm Reach of U.S. Trademark Law – We’ll Soon Learn Just How Long It Is One may correctly assume that United States trademark law under the Lanham Act applies to conduct in the United States. That, of course, makes sense. But what if you are a U.S. company exporting goods abroad and your trademark is infringed […]
Fair Use or Infringement — So Sorry
May 1, 2023
Copyright
Dozens of times over the past 10 years, we have written about the “fair use” exception to copyright infringement. You may recall that “fair use” under the U.S. Copyright Act permits limited use of copyrighted works for purposes of “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research.” It’s a complex area and one that is continuously […]
We have two trademark news updates this month: In our February 2022 newsletter, we discussed the importance of “geographical indications” in trademark law. You may recall that a geographical indication is an association between a geographical region and a particular product. To quote ourselves: Champagne is from the Champagne region of France, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and […]
Bloggers, Register Your Copyrights Now!
April 3, 2023
Copyright
Photographers have long been able to utilize the copyright system for registering groups of photographs for a single registration fee, now $55.00. It has to be one of the best bargains in the IP world. Registration gives photographers and other authors of original content access to federal courts, a presumption of validity, a public record of ownership […]