In its 2020 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy, the United States Trade Representative warns: “Commercial-scale copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting cause significant financial losses for U.S. right holders and legitimate businesses, undermine critical U.S. comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of American workers, and pose significant risks to consumer health and safety.” […]
Trademark
2021 Brings New Trademark Fees
January 14, 2021
Trademark
2021 brings new trademark fees. The PTO states: “The overall strategy of the Final Rule is to balance a reasonable and affordable fee schedule with sufficient multi-year revenue to recover the aggregate costs of maintaining the USPTO’s trademark-related operations and accomplishing the USPTO’s trademark-related strategic goals. The Final Rule enables the USPTO to continue to enhance […]
New Trademark Rules: Legislators Seek to Streamline the PTO
December 31, 2020
Trademark
On Sunday, December 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and government funding bill. Included within the massive piece of legislation are a number of new laws specifically addressing intellectual property issues, including the 2020 Trademark Modernization Act (TMA), the Case Act and other copyright related legislation discussed in another article […]
SCOTUS To Consider Dog Poo?
November 12, 2020
Trademark
No joke, sometimes, we come across a trademark dispute that cries out for a mention. Here’s one. VIP Products (“VIP”) sells among other things a line of toys, which it calls “Silly Squeakers.” Dog lovers/readers may be familiar with them. The line of vinyl dog toys consists of vinyl replicas of liquor, beer, wine, and […]
For almost 30 years, the NFL’s Washington Redskins were involved in litigation over their team name. Now that the owners have capitulated, they face new challenges: a swarm of trademark squatters that have scooped up rights to likely replacements. First, a little background. The Washington Redskins have been using the team name since 1933 and […]
In a story that would make a screenwriter jealous, it seems that the newly-minted U.S. Space Force may have lost trademark rights in the term “Space Force” to Netflix. On June 18, 2018, President Trump announced the U.S. Space Force which came to life on December 20, 2019, with the signing of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020, […]
Horror Retail Meets Copyright Law
June 18, 2020
Copyright, Intellectual Property, Trademark
Policing your trademarks is as important as registering them. Policing requires that the trademark and other rights owners monitor the world of commerce to ensure that others are not stealing their intellectual property and, if so, take immediate action against infringers. Many corporations zealously defend their trademark portfolios. Here’s but one example. In a recent article at Wired.com, The […]
Dim Sum Wars – Trademarks at Loggerheads
December 12, 2019
Trademark
It’s not uncommon for our office to receive calls from restaurant owners, complaining that another restaurant in town is infringing its trademark. Frankly, pizza and cheesesteak establishments are just not that creative when it comes to choosing distinctive names. One well-known dispute you may know about involved the Olivieri family members who sued each […]
No, You Can’t Trademark “OK Boomer”
December 5, 2019
Trademark
Trademarking “OK Boomer” You may have heard that the generational battle between “millennials” and “baby boomers” now has a catch phrase: “OK Boomer”. It’s a dismissive phrase by those darn youngsters who are loitering on your lawn and forgetting to pull up their pants. I’m kidding about the loitering and the pants, but the catchphrase […]
Fake News: The Trademark
November 21, 2019
Trademark
The term “fake news” has entered our political lexicon as an epithet directed at journalists and news organizations. Professional journalists, who take great pride in their profession and the role they have historically played in our democracy, are offended by the tone of civil discourse on this issue. Now, one group of journalists, The Florida […]