Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the Defense Research Institute (DRI) Intellectual Property Litigation seminar in Denver, Colorado. Simon Tam was one of the featured speakers and he spoke about his journey to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Tam v Matal....
Trademark
USPTO’s New Program to Combat Trademark Application Fraud
The United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) launched a pilot program allowing users to protest trademark applications filed with improper specimens that are digitally created, altered, or fabricated. This program was implemented to combat the growing...
Trademark Searches: A Cost Saving Measure Often Ignored – Part 2
When companies set out to establish a new brand for their company, they often skip one important step: the trademark search. This may save a little money in the short-term… only to cause much larger expenses and problems in the long-term. In my previous blog post, I...
Trademark Searches: A Cost Saving Measure Often Ignored – Part 1
Businesses often overlook a simple but critical step in establishing a new brand for a company, product, or service: a trademark search. The first step in a trademark strategy for the adoption and protection of a new word or design mark should be the search process....
Avoid Naked Licensing
When business owners develop a wonderful product, often other people want to sell the product or use the trademark to develop other products. For example, a business develops a popular tasty rum and sells it under a registered trademark, YUMMY. Friends of the creator...
Can You Trademark Disparaging and Scandalous Words?
Two major court cases in 2017 asked the question: can the government prohibit the registration of trademarks that may be considered defamatory or offensive? In 1905, The Trademark Act forbid the registration of scandalous and immoral trademarks. Then, in 1946, section...
Grumpy Cat Elated to Win $700k Lawsuit (But You Wouldn’t Know It)
You may know the internet celebrity Tardar Sauce by her more popular name, Grumpy Cat. She has been the subject of numerous memes. One of the most famous reads, “I had fun once. It was awful.” But you may not be aware that her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, formed the...
Can You Register Your Domain Name as a Trademark?
A domain name can become a trademark only if it is used as a trademark. Simply registering a word or words as a domain name does not itself establish trademark rights. Remember, a trademark identifies and distinguishes the source of goods or services. The key is...