Blog – Adam Garson Law

trademark psychedelic goods

Last month we wrote about a recent registration of the term PSILOCYBIN for educational materials related to psychoactive plants. The point of our article was that applying for generic terms as trademarks is not the most effective strategy for developing a distinctive brand. Now, sadly, a flurry of coronavirus-related trademark applications raises similar concerns. In a […]

Cannabis Candy

Terphogz simply helped itself to Wrigley’s famous SKITTLES Marks, picking “ZKITTLEZ” as the name of its drugs, knocking off Wrigley’s federally registered TASTE THE RAINBOW slogan, and even copying Wrigley’s S logo. Terphogz appears to be a legitimate California company. Why would it believe that it could avoid a lawsuit by marketing a knockoff of […]

Duty of Candor

You and your patent attorney have a ‘duty of candor’ to the USPTO You’ve created a great invention.  You hire a patent attorney and file a patent application.  While your application is pending, you poke around in Google Patents and come across prior art that would preclude a valid patent for one of your claims.  Do […]

Ever been approached by an enterprising salesperson with a coat full of fake Rolex watches?  It’s a risky business. The FBI, federal marshals, customs officials and brand owners may be involved in enforcing trademark and anti-counterfeiting laws. Did you know that not only sellers but their landlords may be liable? Under a theory of contributory […]

Question on a Keyboard

Dear Doc: I see that several artists and authors have sued artificial intelligence companies, claiming that using their writings, artwork, voices, etc. to train AI systems violates copyright. What do you think of that? Can they stop this whole AI thing using copyright law? Signed,Asking for an Artificial Friend Dear Asking: The Doc is skeptical […]

Shein Website

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 […]

Float ’N’ Grill

So you came up with a great invention – let’s say a floating grill for cooking your burgers.  You know that unless your grill has patent protection it will be knocked off immediately. Clearly, you need a patent. You read up on the topic and learn that you can file a patent application yourself – you […]

Twitter X

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 […]

Question on a Keyboard

Dear Doc: Now that the Supremes have settled the whole fair use debate (except for all the issues that they left unsettled, and the new issues that their decision in the Warhol case created…), what’s this that I hear about bananas? Sincerely,Froot Loopy Dear Loopy: Did you know that “Froot Loops” is called that because […]