This blurb from today’s NY Times (online by subscription only):

“Certainly it’s hit Ralph Lauren, and I feel it’s hit Tommy
to an extent. Kate Spade is pulling back a little and
Calvin has pulled back the CK’s on a lot of things.” – Kal Ruttenstein of Bloomingdale’s, on the decline in designer logos.

The…

This via Rick on re-branding Britain.

Coincidental to the blurb on Yakult below, I just learned of the Ninth Circuit’s recent case discussing fame, Thane v. Trek, in this case, the fame of the TREK mark used for mountain bikes.  To clarify my comments below, fame is and should be interpreted differently when determining whether there is infringement, or dilution…

Via NameProtect, an article from The Guardian re FIFA’s attempts to prevent “ambush marketing,” by which advertisers refer to events such as the World Cup, where the organizers of such events have sold “endorsement” rights.  In this case, VISA referred to the World Cup and in FIFA’s view, implied an endorsement by FIFA.

This article describes an injunction obtained by Yakult (the famous Japanese maker of a Yogurt drink and owner of the Yakult Swallows) received against a competitor named Yakudo.  The injunction applies to Hong Kong, which is a separate jursidction from the PRC (for now).  The article goes on to discuss the larger prize –…

China has stopped re-directing requests to Google although, according to this article from siliconvalley.com, China doesn’t acknowledge that it ever did in the fist place).

 I thought I was going to write about 9/11 today but that has turned out not to be the case.  This morning I received an email from a colleague with the subject “Al Fross.”  Al has had cancer for four years now, so I knew my colleague was writing to tell me Al…

This time involving falwell.com (via news.com).