Trademark

On December 1, 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) promulgated new guidelines governing endorsements and testimonials.  Although the guidelines — being just “guidelines” — do not have the force of law,  they do provide insight on how the FTC will interpret the law.  The guidelines cover endorsements by bloggers, consumers, experts, and organizations.  Let’s look […]

This week Apple Computer, Inc. (Apple) released a bevy of new products including a newly designed, multi-touch mouse, monikered “Magic Mouse“.  Interestingly, Apple just recently lost a trademark dispute with Man & Machine, Inc. (Man & Machine) over the “Mighty Mouse” trademark, which happened to be the mark used for Apple’s previous mouse product introduced […]

Confused over when to use the appropriate symbol when referring to trademarks and copyrights?  Here’s the scoop. The “C” in the circle is notice to the world that the associated work is protected by copyright law.  Although not required by the Copyright Act, it may be placed on any published work.  Registration of the copyright […]

Real Trademarks Used in Virtual Worlds – Part II In our June 2009 newsletter, we wrote about the challenges posed by Virtual Worlds such as Second Life to trademark owners.  The commercialization of virtual worlds by real life companies and the apparently rampant unauthorized use of trademarks by virtual world residents has created new “territory” […]

By now, anybody in the know who uses Facebook, is scrambling (or has scrambled) to get their own vanity user name. On Saturday, June 13, 2009, Facebook opened the door for an estimated 200 million users to select any “username” they wanted virtually without limitation.  The benefit is to have a URL which reads “Facebook.com/UserName,” […]

Real Trademarks Used in Virtual Worlds, Second Life In a lawsuit filed in April 2009, Taser International, Inc.,  the world’s largest maker of stun guns sued Linden Research Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the San Francisco based company, which runs Second Life, the online virtual world.  Taser Int’l, Inc. v. Linden Research, Inc., 2:09-cf-00811-ROS (D. Az 2009). […]

Lawyers often talk about the benefits of federal trademark registration.  Federal registration bestows upon the trademark owner the ability to bring infringement actions in federal court, it provides evidentiary presumptions about use and validity of the mark, it bestows a presumption of incontestability (after 5 years), it provides constructive notice that the mark is yours, […]

Based on patent filings thus far in 2009, the number of new applications filed in 2009 is projected to drop by more than 11 percent from 2008.   The drop in applications translates into a significant decrease in current revenue to the Patent and Trademark Office (‘PTO’) from fees.  The drop in revenue creates a major […]

The United States trademark system is a “use” based system.  Using your trademark bestows upon you the benefits of trademark ownership so long as you are the first to identify your particular goods and services in the geographical region in which you do business.  Use is paramount and can even trump another user’s valid federal […]