OBELIX and his friend ASTERIX are French cartoon characters (with a cult following in the U.S.). IPKAT reports that Obelix, who, incidentally, built Stonehenge, recently obtained a novel trademark ruling in Portugal involving obtaining damages without establishing actual lost sales.
Business Week and Interbrand on the 100 Most Valuable Global Brands
Business Week and Interbrand have released their annual list of the Top Global Brands. The top ten, and their estimated brand vaule in billions is reproduced below. The whole list can be accessed here and the article here:
- COCA COLA $70.45b
- MICROSOFT 65.27
- IBM 51.77
- GE 42.34
- INTEL 31.11
- NOKIA 29.44
- DISNEY 28.04
- McDONALDS 24.70
If You Are An Expert on the Taxation of Intellectual Property . . .
. . . then you should write (see the ‘contact me’ thing on left frame) and share with us your thoughts on the tax implications of the SEX.COM decision (see below), holding that a domain name is intangible property, and not a contract for services.
9th Circuit Rules in SEX.COM Case That Domain Name Reg. is Intangible Property
The Ninth Circuit has issued a decision in the SEX.COM case. Kremen had registered SEX,COM back when domain naems were free. Someone named Cohen sent a forged letter to NSI (the .com regsitrar) asking that it transfer control of the domain name. NSI complied. One of the facts with which I am not aware (and
Roxy Music and the Rockettes
My wife and I saw Roxy Music at Radio City last night. As we were leaving, we overheard an older woman (I mean older than everybody else there, who were all pretty old – I mean Bryan Ferry is 60) talking to a Radio City employee. She seemed to be saying that she wanted her
Meme Ownership Watch: METROSEXUAL
The term METROSEXUAL is gaining currency (see here, and here). There is even a dispute as to who coined it. The domain names METROSEXUAL.COM and METROSEXUAL.NET have been registered but are not in use. There are no trademark applications incorporating the term in the U.S. as of yet.
TOUCAN SAM v. TOUCAN GOLD
Sixth Circuit: Toucan Gold for golf clubs not confusingly similar or dilutive of Toucan Sam for Fruit Loops. Kelloggs argued, inter alia, that a 1982 animated commercial for Fruit Loops showing Toucan Sam talking to a golf playing bear “indicate[s] that the Toucan Sam marks are related not only to the manufacture of breakfast cereal
Who Is the Real Shady Clothing
A Las Vegas company, is suing Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, aka Slim Shady, over the right to use SHADY in connect with clothing.
Mr. Mathers apparently has another problem with slimshady.com which he does not appear to own (don’t click, the thing is mouse-trapped, it re-directs, you’ll get an ad for Gator,
More on Atlanta Braves Tissue Covers and the DMCA
A loyal Trademark Blog reader writes in to comment on the Atlanta Braves tissue box cover matter reproted below. Major League Baseball had written to Ebay and asked them to remove the products which were manufactured from allegedly ‘licensed’ fabric but the items themselves (such as aprons and tissue box covers) were not authorized by