Back in 2012, Beyoncé and JayZ attempted to get a trademark for the name of their daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, not long after her birth. Their reason? The Carters did not want people profiting off of their little girl’s name and saw the trademark registration as a means...
MGA Entertainment has been ordered to pay a hefty $71.5 million in damages to Tameka “Tiny” Harris, her husband T.I., and the teen pop group OMG Girlz. The verdict in the IP lawsuit follows a three-week trial that accused the toy makers of stealing the looks, name,...
A small Pennsylvania-based company, Lontex, is taking on Nike over a trademark infringement claim. Lontex specializes in compression technology for sportswear, marketed under the Sweat It Out brand. They developed a unique line of clothing featuring “Cool...
A long-standing trend of the tech world is “industry disruption,” which often takes the form of taking action first and dealing with legal consequences later, whether that is new regulations to contain Uber and Lyft or judicial rulings reigning in trademark...
Every time the Olympics come around, they become the focus of the whole world. Literally billions of people watch broadcasts of the games, and people everywhere are excited to show support for their country’s athletes. All of this attention means that businesses...
One interesting trend in my legal practice in recent years has been the rise of trademark dispute cases over domain names – the catchy, easy-to-remember online address of a business, like “southwest.com.” Perhaps this is not surprising, as much of our commerce these...
The following case comes with a few IP law reminders. First, where trademarks are concerned, location and timing matter. Second, it is possible for both sides to lose in a trademark lawsuit. And finally, when the battle is between David and Goliath, sometimes David...
Petition to Cancel The trademark owner may need to file a Petition to Cancel another trademark registration if a prior registration is preventing the registration of your trademark. This is possible if your trademark has priority in commerce or if the other trademark...