The Trademark Blog

Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. Interesting quote:

Brand is a lagging indicator of a company's culture.

Are there any law firms with a Zappos-like culture?

Posted by Marty Schwimmer at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments

SwipeBids and QuiBids are 'pay per bid' auction sites. They will promote prior sales of popular consumer electronics and other items for very low prices. For example, on SwipeBids right now, it indicates that it sold an Apple MacBook Pro for $387, and a $20 Amazon Gift Card for $2. How do they do it? Bidders pay a membership fee, and then pay some small amount (say .50) to bid. The economics are similar to those of a lottery - the bidder buys a cheap ticket, the house's revenues of the bids tends to exceed the value of the item (especially since people likely place multiple bids on an item).

SwipeBids alleges that QuiBids stole copyrighted content, fabricated news stories, fabricated customer testimonials and wrongfully misappropriated the image of French news anchor Melissa Theuriau. This is the second SDNY case this summer containing allegations of 'fake reviews' as false advertising.

And If you know Melissa Theuriau, please tell her that her image may have been wrongfully used.

Complaint Swipebids Quibids Copyright False Advertising

Posted by Marty Schwimmer at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments

Coverage here:

Invesco Ltd., the Atlanta-based investment management company, has been sued by a Boston-based trust claiming infringement of its trademarks for exchange- traded funds.

Select Sector SPDR Trust said Invesco began marketing its PowerShares funds using the same XL ticker symbols SPDR has been using, in a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court in Houston.

Intrestingly, SPDR is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor's.

Complaint SPDR Invesco Ticker Symbol Trademark

Posted by Marty Schwimmer at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

Defendant bakery identifies branded cookies and candies as toppings for its cakes. Plaintiff See's Candies alleges that defendant's 'manufacture, storage, sales and storage' processes don't meet See's standards, therefore the See's candies offered are materially different and therefore infringing.

Complaint Sees Aunt Joy

Posted by Marty Schwimmer at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Coverage here.

Decision Bratz

Posted by Marty Schwimmer at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments