Category Archives: Trademark

What to Get the Trademark Attorney in Your Life

Posted on November 10, 2011 by tom

I saw on TV the other day the perfect gift for your favorite trademark attorney or advertising executive.  Test their subject matter knowledge with the LOGO board game.  Spin Master, a Canadian company, has developed a game tapping into the marketing … Continue reading →

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Brand Bully Basement

Posted on October 12, 2011 by tom

Lara Pearson, operator of the brandGEEK website, has created an avenue for victims of trademark bullying.  Those who feel they have been wrongly pushed around by someone exerting a little too much influence with a trademark can complain at Brand … Continue reading →

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Disclaimers in Trademark Office Actions

Posted on October 4, 2011 by tom

Disclaimers are a frequently raised issue by the Trademark Office.  I see such rejections most often when a mark owner files the application himself and includes too much material in the mark, but they do occasionally arise when a trademark … Continue reading →

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Should I use LegalZoom for my Trademark Application?

Posted on September 12, 2011 by tom

Trademark applications mature into trademark registrations and can be very important and valuable assets for a business.  Anyone can file a trademark application, and most people can successfully “register” a trademark.  However, the value of a DIY trademark is dubious, … Continue reading →

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Dex Encourages you Dex It! and Obliterate their Trademark

Posted on July 28, 2011 by tom

This morning I saw a Dex commercial urging the viewer to “Dex it” when they needed to look something up.  Dex it?  Instead of Googling searching online for it?  Well, first off, I have opted-out of receiving most telephone books, … Continue reading →

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Buying a Domain Name? Do a Clearance Search

Posted on July 15, 2011 by tom

Every once in a while, I get offers to buy domain names in my field – arizonacopyrightatttorney.com or arizonapatent.com, things like that.  I have yet to buy one, but I am sure they aren’t cheap – several thousand dollars, perhaps. … Continue reading →

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Store Layout Trade Dress

Posted on June 30, 2011 by tom

The way a store or restaurant looks is often central to the success of business.  It is often also an asset of the business that can be protected as trade dress. Restaurants and stores (successful ones, at least) tend to … Continue reading →

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Prevent your Trademark from Becoming a .xxx Domain

Posted on June 28, 2011 by tom

.XXX top-level domains are due out soon. This means that you will begin to see (or not see) porn sites moving to the format www.SITENAME.xxx around the end of the year. This new domain is intended to isolate adult websites … Continue reading →

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Trademark Searches of Design Marks

Posted on June 21, 2011 by tom

Trademark searches can be informative tools.  Yesterday, Bruno Tarabichi from Trademark Sentinel wrote about the effectiveness of a client-performed trademark search.  He noted, quite rightly, that clients often choose to do their own search instead of having one professionally run. … Continue reading →

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Developing Trade Dress Rights

Posted on June 20, 2011 by tom

Trade dress is the protectable dress, design, packaging, or look-and-feel of a product or service. Because trademark rights are all about use and signaling in the consumer’s mind the source of the product, nearly anything that functions as such a … Continue reading →

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