What does Sophia Loren and Scarlet Johansson share in common? Each of these women had nude photos of themselves posted onto the internet without their consent. They also have another thing in common. Each of them legally fought back and succeeded in having their risqué photos removed off the Internet sites. How were they able […]
The Federal Trademark Dilution Act (“FTDA”), embodied in Section 43(c)(1) of the Lanham Act, provides that famous marks are eligible for federal protection when a third party’s use of the mark dilutes the famous mark’s distinctiveness, even in the absence of competition, likelihood of confusion, mistake, or deception. Protection against dilution does not exist to […]
By: Mark R. Malek I am sure everyone has starved themselves to the point of near collapse in anticipation of the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend. For the sake of showing that the Patent world is very in touch with the holiday season, we would like to share with you some Thanksgiving related patents that we came […]
How to Trademark Brand Logo If you are an avid trivia enthusiast like me you may have stumbled upon the popular website called sporcle.com. This website tests your trivia knowledge on an array of topics from geography to television. One quiz I recently took was called “Can you name the corporate logos?” I played and […]
In today’s web 2.0 world, it is even harder for companies to protect their trademarks. With more and more people interacting on these social media sites, we see more cases of trademark infringement. Many times the infringers are not even aware that what they are doing is illegal. For example, fans of a product or […]
By: Mark R. Malek My previous articles (see them here, here and here) have provided information on the requirements of disclosing prior art and about how to do some prior art searching. Many times, I am asked by a client to provide them a “complete” patent search that locates every piece of related prior art […]
By: Tyler Hampy Say that you really want to use a phrase or logo that you know is trademarked. Is there a way you can use the mark without getting yourself into trouble? The answer is yes! You need a trademark license. A trademark license is a permit to use another’s mark. It gives you […]
In 1955, a 65 year old man wearing a white suit to match his white hair and goatee took $105 out his social security to start franchising his fried chicken recipe. Less than ten years later, he had 600 franchisee restaurants selling his famous Kentucky Fried Chicken. This man was the legendary Colonel Harland Sanders. […]
In the early 1990’s before the dot.com craze, a young entrepreneur named Ray Sozzi started his company Student Advantage. His company sold student advantage discount membership cards to the higher education market. In a stroke of genius or good fortune, he decided to secure several domain names for his business. One of the domain names […]
