I have been invited by the Art Institute of Phoenix to give a presentation on Tuesday the 29th regarding the intersection of intellectual property and the arts. Many of the students at the school study fashion, so the talk will…
John Welch questions whether you would have appealed the recent rejection of Gila River’s application for AIRIA. Local Arizona tribe and gaming enterprise Gila River has a night club named Airia, but unfortunately, there is an Area nightclub in LA…
When the Trademark Office receives a new application, one of the first things it does is conduct a search for similar marks. The Trademark Examiner often searches for identical mark and homonyms in all goods and services classifications and for similar…
All trademark registrations filed under Sections 1(a) or 1(b) of the Lanham Act carry a date of first use. In those registrations that are filed as intent-to-use applications, the date that the mark is first used is typically very easy…
As I have written before, trademark applicants and registrants should be on the watch for official-looking notices or requests asking for fees or registry enrollments. The USPTO has begun issuing a formal warning notice when it mails the Certificate of…
This question was posed to me during a recent interview. Is it possible to patent something that is used for an illegal purpose or is used with an illegal substance, or is there a prohibition against such patents? Is patent…
Several months ago, Slowtwitch.com erupted over an altered image that had been discovered of pro triathlete Hillary Biscay. The original image showed Biscay running during an Ironman-branded race with a jersey that bears a small blue decal. That decal is…
Kim Manwaring is a Phoenix neurosurgeon who invented a number of medical devices in his garage-turned-laboratory. He was profiled in the Arizona Republic this weekend, and I thought it was a great story of the and hard work and creative…
The Ironman trademark (the second link is to one of the many Ironman registrations) is an extremely valuable trademark to the World Triathlon Corporation. The WTC works to protect its unauthorized use (though sometimes I do question their authorized use)….
An assignment can be filed with a patent application to immediately convey control of the patent application to the assignee. This is frequently necessary where the inventor is an employee of a company that will be controlling the patent application….