Blog – Adam Garson Law

What can you copyright

*Originally posted on April 1, 2021 Copyright law often isn’t as well understood as, for example, criminal defense, or family law. Most people may know that if you write a book, perform a song, or take a photograph, you can obtain copyright protection for those works. But what about items that you can’t protect through […]

Better Call Saul

Out of all the names Defendants could have used for the tax business portrayed in Episode 2, they decided not to be original at all, but instead ripped off the famous Liberty Tax trademark, which had been used for over 25 years, and mimic an actual Liberty Tax location just by adding the word “Sweet” […]

Fair Use

*Originally posted on December 17, 2020 In addition to an award of statutory damages, the ability to obtain attorney’s fees is often touted as an advantage of registering a copyright.  Indeed, it is a strong incentive for some lawyers to take copyright infringement cases on a contingency basis. What’s not often discussed is that should […]

USPTO

The USPTO has LOWERED the cost of filing and prosecuting patent applications for small and micro entities.  The USPTO filing fees for small entities (generally, companies with fewer than 500 employees) is now 40% of the filing fee for large entities, down from 50%.  The USPTO fees for micro entities (generally, academics and individual inventors who have […]

CBD Hemp Tea

*Originally posted on April 14, 2022 The rapid but uneven legalization of cannabis-related products in the U.S. and the resulting jurisdictional patchwork where cannabis use may be legal in one state but not another, or on the state but not the federal level, has created confusion for trademark applicants. Some applicants, frustrated by the USPTO’s […]

Wisconsin Gruyere

Champagne is from the Champagne region of France, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and Prosciutto di Parma ham from the Parma region of Italy, Toscano olive oil from Tuscany, Roquefort cheese and Champagne from the region of the same name in France. Then there is Irish Whiskey, Darjeeling tea, Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes, Vidalia onions, Washington State […]

Samuel Hopkins patent featured image

It’s time to turn over a bright, shiny new leaf and to make hopeful resolutions with the best of intentions.  Your Faithful Narrator’s thoughts turn to a shiny new beginning of the distant past – to the year 1790, only three years after the Founders hammered out the new U.S. Constitution and one year after […]

France.com

*Originally posted on January 13, 2022 Trademarks may incorporate geographical terms but if the USPTO determines that a trademark is “primarily geographic”, the trademark application will be rejected. According to the USPTO,  To support a refusal to register geographic matter, the Trademark Act requires that the mark be primarily geographic, that is, that its primary significance to […]