Trademark law

The Slants and That Washington Football Team: Why “offensive” trademarks matter

January 8th 2016

While this post touches on culture, freedom and offense – and of course dance music – its hero is buried in the story as I imagine he’d prefer. Ron Coleman’s writing and good spirit has been an occasional inspiration and benefit of working on this blog. Arguing on constitutional grounds is a long and heavy climb. Congratulations to Ron and The Slants. Any friends of Ron have special standing here. Cheers.

Unicorn Meat Distributor Threatened by the Pork Board

June 25th 2010

How to Throw and Catch the Knife of Wit “Unicorns, as we all know, frolic all over the world, pooping rainbows and marshmallows wherever they go.”  So begins a send-up product pitch for Unicorn – the new white meat. The illustration on the right shows the parts of the unicorn can rendered into rainbows (or […]

Update on Internet Law: Domain Name Law & Social Media at INTA

May 25th 2010

J. Scott Evans is hands down the person to turn to on emerging domain and online IP law issues. He’s moderating a panel discussion with David Taylor of Hogan Lovells International, and Scot Minden of  Symantec. Is a gTLD expensive compared to dot.com? Taylor offered that generic terms as regular doamins have recently sold for […]

Watch The Academy Award Winning Animated Short ‘Logorama’ Online

April 24th 2010

Got 16 minutes to watch an fun Academy Awarding winning animation short for free? Better still, for us IP law geeks, its all trademarks! Come take a look…

Google and Topeka Swap Names for a Day: Trademark Hilarity Ensues

April 1st 2010

Last month, the mayor of Topeka, Kansas, stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. Now Google has honored that gesture by changing its name name to Topeka for April Fools’ Day. This makes Bill Bunten the Mayor of Google and Eric Schmidt the CEO of Topeka, Inc. Of course, […]

Nestle’s Bogus Copyright and Trademark Complaints Fuel a Streisand Effect for Greenpeace

March 20th 2010

This week, Greenpeace posted a gruesome anti-Nestlé commercial on YouTube complaining that Nestlé SA buys palm oil from companies that destroy the Indonesian rainforest to plant oil palms. The 60-second video depicts a bored office worker enjoying a Kit Kat, which, rather than being the popular chocolate-hazelnut ladyfinger-style confection, appears to be a chocolate-covered ape […]

Logorama, Short Film Made of Trademarks, Wins Oscar (Watch it Online, Free!)

March 8th 2010

Last night, a 16-minute animated film, entirely populated by trademarks as both characters and props, won an upset Academy Award. Its producer, Nicolas Schmerkin, explains: It’s about the way we live and the way we react to these logos. The brain can register 14 logos in less than one second. Making the logos characters with […]

Is INTA Being Twitter-Squatted? That Can’t Be Good.

March 2nd 2010

INTA, the International Trademark Association, is a group of nearly six thousand trademark professionals in 190 countries.  They protect the world’s brands. They’re being Twitter-squatted.  There’s no pretty way to say it. In 2007, someone apparently seized their name as a Twitter handle and posted one five letter word, “srrrr”. This looks like a case […]

Trademarks in Keyword Advertising: Online Law Trends for 2010

February 11th 2010

The most frequent response to my question about what online law issues our readers are most concerned about centered on the still undetermined law around the use of trademarks as  to trigger advertising in search engines.  The issue is both prominent and vexingly permanent in the minds of both IP layers and and search marketers. […]

Digital Marketing Regulation and the Fear of Clowns Are 2010 Themes

February 1st 2010

Last week I asked UsefulArts.us readers what they think may online law trends for  2010.  Here’s the first of what looks like a half dozen responses to that question. The Coulrophobia Epidemic of 2010: trademark owners’ fear of clowns may be rational. When a competitor uses your mark and pretends to be your company, that’s […]