The term “trademark bully” is a hot one these days, showing up in blogs and getting its own Chilling Effects-esque website. Perhaps its use parallels the media’s coverage of what seems to be increasingly more child-bullying examples. A trademark bully…
After a few weeks of respite, patent infringement lawsuits pick up in Arizona. Two complaints were filed recently. The first complaint was filed by Foxwise Products, LLC, an Arizona company manufacturing horse-related products. The company alleged that a number of…
I prepare myself to be a skeptic every April 1st, but I always fall victim to at least one prank. This morning I received an email from Avvo, a site that lists and rates lawyers. I get emails from them…
Last week, DuetsBlog squawked about Aflac’s recent firing of Gilbert Gottfried as the voice of the Aflac Duck after he comments he made about the Japan crisis. The characteristic quack of the Aflac Duck is a registered trademark of Aflac,…
Professor Andrew Beckerman-Rodau has recently written in the Yale Journal of Law & Technology that intellectual property protection has expanded beyond its intended, or appropriate, scope. This has resulted in the lines between subject matter (and their corresponding intellectual property)…
I’m in training for Ironman Arizona. Oops, I mean, Ford Ironman Arizona. Er, I mean, the Ford Ironman Arizona Tempe triathlon. I think? I don’t know anymore. Ironman may be most familiar to sane people because of the Timex watch…
This Phoenix Patent Attorney was in Miami for part of the last two weeks, and I couldn’t help but notice the tremendous use of huge billboards. Advertising is colossal in that town, and so trademarks are everywhere. On the way…
DuetsBlog is a consistently well-written, highly-informative blog that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It features articles that are interesting and helpful, not just rarefied academic discussions on case law. And it is approachable for the attorney and the…
When trademark attorneys talk about registering trademarks (not “trademarking”), they generally mean registering a trademark on the Principal Register. We all aspire to have an application show up here, but sadly, we aren’t always so successful. There is another, seedy,…
Trademark registration applications for non-English words present special challenges. Trademark examination at the USPTO normally considers whether there are similar marks already registered that would prevent the applied-for mark from being registered. Typically, the USPTO considers the look, sound, and…