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 […]
Tag Archives: trademarks
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
Earlier this year we wrote about recent trends in trademark filings by China. Between 2013 in 2017 Chinese companies filed more as PTO said than 50,000 trademark applications With the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The increase in filings could be explained by growth in the Chinese economy and Chinese government subsidies, paying […]
Nearly two years ago we wrote about the Washington Redskins and its efforts to maintain their registration of REDSKINS, which the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancelled because it was disparaging of Native Americans. The U.S. Supreme Court took up the cause in an unrelated case, Matal v. Tam, and held that section 2(a) of […]
China Deluges U.S. with Trademark Filings
March 14, 2019
Trademark
It is widely known that China has been the source of cyber attacks against public and private entities in the United States. The nature and effectiveness of these attacks are of considerable concern. According to one estimate, cyber theft by the Chinese has cost the U.S. economy more than $300 billion annually taking into account […]
MacDonald’s Loses its Mojo in the EU
February 14, 2019
Trademark
McDonald’s Trademark BIG MAC Trademarks may reside in families. A family of marks is a group of trademarks that have a recognizable common characteristic. For example, you may recall that Eastman Kodak owned trademarks for KODACOLOR, KODAMATIC, and KODACHROME, the term “Koda” being the common element of all three trademarks. A family of marks is […]
Tangible or Intangible? This is actually an interesting question. If you erect a sign displaying a trademark over a store, isn’t that a tangible representation of a trademark? Of course it is. On the other hand, if you were to license your trademark for use by another company, you don’t transfer a physical representation of […]
Candy Bars Make Trademark News Yet Again
August 9, 2018
Trademark
In 2013, we wrote about the branding wars between candy bar makers. These disputes are good measure of the boundaries between 3-D trademarks that have acquired distinctiveness (registrable) and those that are functional (not registrable). In 2006, Nestlé was granted trademark rights in the “distinctive” shape of its KitKat bar in various European countries. But […]