In general, protectable trademark rights arise in two ways – obtaining registrations, and, in a couple of oddball countries such as the U.S., through use. There is a third way a trademark can be protected, and it arises under Article 6bis of the Paris Convention, which provides, in part, that Treaty members have the
Of interest to people who create and subscribe to RSS feeds: Copyfight discusses the potential copyrightability of newspaper headlines.
UPDATE: More info analysis and links from Copyfight here.
Jeff Brandt is a patent lawyer,who, among his other accomplishments, was head of patents at Walker Digital when its Priceline subsidiary obtained its famous business process patent. Jeff has his own firm now and I’m happy to say that he helps out my clients when they have patent needs. Jeff has started a website called
Rountable discussion: Popup ads and the law, via Gigalaw.
LaCoste has been ordered by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court to apologize and pay US$1 dollar (why a US dollar?) to the party it unsuccessfully sued regarding its crocodile logo. Background here.
A Westerly Republican official purchased WESTERLYDEMOCRATS.COM. Brou-ha-ha here.
Terminated distributor of ‘invisible fence’ for dogs continued to use trademarks of licensor. 2d Circuit affirms District court rulings on personal jurisdiction and injunctive relief.
Sunward Electronics v. McDonald, 03-7432 (2d Cir March 3, 2004).
Commentary on a famous American brand here. It conjures the object of the parody without creating confusion. Not work safe due to language.
p.s. Once I went into a Starbucks and asked for a medium and the person behind the counter asked “which medium?”
Go to the Trademark Office status database and type in 78328499.
Coverage on Froogle, the new shopping service from Google