Austrian crystal jewelry maker, Swarovski has decided to not renew its trademark “Crystal Glamour”. In 2005, Swarovski received the registration for the term and filed the trademark as a “proposed to use” basis. However, their claim to the trademark was disputed by Crystal Knitters, a textile manufacturer from Tirupur. Crystal Knitters claims that they have […]
Trademarks can be so confusing. Is it ok to use the same trademark as someone else? A detailed analysis must be conducted before answering such a question. A great example of the type of analysis that occurs in trademark law can be found in the movie Coming to America.
For those of you with small children and those who are expecting, you may still be in awe of the vast amount of baby products out there. Not only are there more things available for your child then they could ever need, there are more and more parent blogs popping up, each with its own […]
In the United States, it is not registration, but actual use of a designation as a mark that creates rights and priority over others. Thus, the rule is that ownership of a mark goes to the first-to-use, not the first-to-file. That being said, trademark ownership is not acquired by federal or state registration, although registration […]
In my last post, I discussed the ability to trademark generic terms. This post focuses on trademarking geographic terms. In the United States, geographic terms can be registered and protected as trademarks identifying a single commercial source if certain conditions are met. Geographic terms have traditionally been very important in identifying the source and […]
My next couple of posts are going to focus on the types of words that can and can’t be trademarked. This post centers on generic terms. In short, a generic name of a product can never function as a trademark to indicate origin. The terms “generic” and “trademark” are mutually exclusive. If a term […]
In trademark law, marks are placed along a continuum of distinctiveness. If a mark is classified as not being inherently distinct, the mark must acquire distinctiveness in consumers’ minds to achieve trademark status. That acquired distinctiveness is called a “secondary meaning.” Secondary meaning is a new and additional meaning that attaches to a mark. […]
