Posts in Trademark

Today I was searching the Internet for some interesting news to write about and I stumbled upon a press release from Burger King regarding its a ¼ pound Double Cheeseburger now being available for only $1. In some markets the ¼ pound Double Cheeseburger has been available for $1 for the past 18 months, but now it is being added…

At the beginning of August 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its decision in Exergen Corp. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., et al., Case Nos. 2006-1491, 2007-1180 (Fed. Cir. 2009), a decision that changed the playing field with respect to charges of inequitable conduct in patent litigation. Essentially, the Federal Circuit decided that since inequitable…

This post may not be as off-topic as you think simply by reading the title.  Yes, I will be licking my wounds as a result of an opening day fantasy football loss, but what is really prompting this article is a discussion this morning on ESPN radio with host Eric Kuselias, who incidentally was managing partner of Goldblatt, Kuselias &…

This past spring, a series of prank videos from a couple bored Domino’s employees captured the worldwide attention of the public and the media. Before they were removed from YouTube, they reportedly garnered a million views. In these videos, an employee put cheese up his nose, and farted and sneezed on sandwich fixings he was handling, while the narrator described…

This week the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it had preliminarily reached a settlement with Dyna-E International and its owner George Wheeler, which would bar the retailer of rayon towels from making false and misleading claims that dupe consumers into believing its paper towels are biodegradable. under a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. This preliminary settlement is now…

Back in March 2009, I had an occasion to need to stay at a hotel I booked through Hotwire.com.  The hotel was nice enough, but there were a few things that were a bit peculiar.  For one, they did not offer dry cleaning services, which is odd for any hotel and particularly one not far from a major airport that…

As you may know, I am trying to determine the top patent blogs on the Internet, and voting for the top patent blogs is currently underway.  The plan has always been to have some fun with this, maybe get some traffic coming to IPWatchdog.com, but most importantly to try and raise the profile of what we all are doing and…

As a fan of the Dallas Cowboys it is hard to write about a Redskins victory, but the victory scored by Pro-Football, Inc. on behalf of the Redskins means that the Redskin trademarks will remain intact.  The ruling providing this victory for the Redskins came down on Friday May, 15, 2009, and should once and for all put this matter…

Chickenfoot is a new rock band that will release its debut, self-titled album in Europe on June 5, 2009, and in North America on June 9, 2009.  The band is comprised of guitar legend Joe Satriani, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ drummer Chad Smith, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and frontman Sammy Hagar, the original “Red Rocker” and a Rock…

I can honestly say that I never thought I would have any reason to write about Nadya Suleman, the so-called Octomom, but it appears as this omnipresent, attention-seeking mother of 14 children is aggressively seeking to cash in on giving birth to 8 children just a few months ago.  In order to take full advantage of this situation Suleman has…

Trademark owners who attempt to file and prosecute their own trademark applications are really being pennywise and pound foolish. I appreciate the reasons for filing your own trademark applications, particularly in this economy. Many times, trademark owners are small companies in their infancy, or individuals that are trying to minimize legal fees while attempting to obtain valuable trademark protection. Nevertheless,…

It is unbelievable to me that the United States Patent and Trademark Office allows LegalZoom.com to continue in what can only be described, at least in my opinion, as the unauthorized practice of law.  It is perhaps even more unbelievable that the various State Attorneys General appear unwilling to stop what I believe to be widespread unauthorized practice of law, despite the…

A “trademark” (which relates to goods) and a “service mark” (which relates to services) can be any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce. Trademarks, which is usually the term used to collectively refer to what are technically trademarks and service marks, serve two primary purposes. First, trademarks identify and distinguish…

Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. recently sued Donruss Playoff, LP and Donruss LLC alleging that Donruss, a former licensee of MLB with respect to baseball trading cards, has continued to make and distribute baseball cards that use images of Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball players in their team’s proprietary uniforms, thereby infringing up on the trademarks owned by…

The owners of the trademarks on the popular American Idol TV program, FremantleMedia North America, Inc., have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division.  This lawsuit came to my attention as I was watching Bill O’Reilly’s show on FOX, and his legal panel was discussing the merits of the lawsuit…