A demand letter sent by an unidentified law firm representing the MPAA to LokiTorrent, a site allegedly facilitating unauthorized distribution of digitized movies using BitTorrent, a PTP protocol. Via Slashdot.

Here’s the thing to remember that gets forgotten.  One of the functions of trademarks and appellations of origin is to act as shorthand.  As Judge Posner might put it, consumers save time and money searching products by choosing a brand, as opposed to doing exhaustive analysis of propsective purchases.

One such shorthand is BLACK ANGUS. …

NY Times article on puffery and truthfulness in advertising claims.

Prior posts on puffery here and here.

Effective January 31, 2005, trademark fees will change as follows:

Initial Applications:

(1) $325 per international class if using the Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS)
(2) $375 per international class if submitting paper

Amendments or Responses to Office Actions:

(1) $325 per additional international class when the fee is paid as part of a TEAS

…

The Trademark Blog has been awarded the ‘Best Practice-Specific Legal Blog’ title by Dennis Kennedy of DennisKennedy.com. OK, I know Dennis, but still, there are a lot of good legal blogs listed and discussed here.

. . . and you are a trademark lawyer that can’t leave work at the office, then you laughed at the Realtor gag and wondered if the NAR would write a nasty letter to the film’s producers because it used REALTOR as a generic term.

Then I got home and saw the “Hello, Trademark Infringement?”…

These and others from Google’s Zeitgeist for 2004 (ING is the third most searched company name?):

Popular Brand Names 2004

…

A TTAB decision holding that the consumer placing a heart on a plush toy does not constittue trademark use, via TTABLOG.