Trademark

sue for trademark infringement

Under U.S. copyright law, as interpreted by the courts, each co-owner of a work owns an undivided interest in the work and is free to exercise those rights, including the right to license the work, without the permission of the other co-owners. As you can imagine, absent an agreement between co-owners, co-ownership of a copyright can potentially […]

Medisafe medical gloves

Robin-egg blue boxes and shiny red soles—some colors do more than please the eye. They signal status, evoke emotion, and, increasingly, serve as trademarks. Think Tiffany & Co.’s signature blue packaging or the iconic red soles of Christian Louboutin shoes. But can a company really own a color?  How Color Became Trademarkable in the Eyes of the […]

Legal concept of phantom trademarks rejected by USPTO due to missing trademark elements

What in the world are “phantom” trademarks? This was a new topic for us, although we had written about so-called “submarine” trademarks several years ago.  Phantom vs. Submarine Trademarks: What’s the Difference? Filing a submarine trademark is a strategy aimed at maintaining a veil of secrecy over a company’s marketing plans by filing in a […]

Consumer Confusion

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. — Anonymous And so begins our trademark tale at the site of the 1892 notorious ax murders of Andrew and Abby Borden in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden’s daughter, was accused of murdering her father […]

trademark use in commerce

The United States trademark system is a “use” based system.  Using your trademark bestows upon you the benefits of trademark ownership whether you register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) or not. If you don’t register it, you still have trademark rights but only for your particular goods and services […]

UGG trademark dispute

There isn’t a singular, unified “international trademark system” in the sense of a global organization that governs trademarks worldwide. There are, however, international frameworks and treaties that facilitate trademark protection enforcement across multiple jurisdictions. There is the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Madrid System, and various regional trademark systems such as the European Union […]

nostalgia marketing

Strong brands are designed to evoke emotional connections between brand and consumer.  That’s why brand owners are eager to leverage “nostalgia,” a sentimental longing for the past, to create deep and more meaningful relationships with their audience. Nostalgia marketing is very powerful. It can evoke emotions, trust and loyalty by “tapping into the positive memories and […]

Amanda's Barbeque

Trademark lawyers are not branding or marketing consultants. But that is not to say that trademark lawyers should not be involved in the branding and marketing process. Indeed, whether clients are big or small, embarking on a branding strategy that may cause confusion in the marketplace is a waste of resources and could potentially lead […]

contact lens

This month we’re going to take a look at something really practical: keyword advertising. Keyword advertising is a digital marketing strategy where businesses target specific words or phrases—keywords—relevant to their products or services. The goal is to have advertisements appear in search engine results or on websites when someone searches for or reads content containing […]