CareFirst is the Maryland affiliate of BlueCross BlueShield. Its press release states that a decision by a federal judge regarding reforms pressed upon CareFirst by Maryland’s Insurance Commissioner “ensures its continued use of the trusted Blues trademark.” The national BlueCross BlueShields organization had suspended CareFirst’s affiliation and ability to use the BlueCross BlueShield mark, arguing, according to
Contraband in Paraguay
NY Times article suggesting that one fifth of Paraguay’s economy consists of smuggling, including 95% of its domestic cigarette production. (free subscription to nytimes.com required). I can attest from personal experience that fighting counterfeits in Paraguay is made more difficult by what the article refers to as “the inefficient and corruption-plagued Paraguayan legal system.”
Map
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
Movie director Spike Lee has sued Viacom, for re-naming its TNN Network as SPIKE TV. Via Salon.
Madrid Protocol Rules of Practice Comments
Comments to the PTO on the proposed Rules of Practice for Trademark filings under the Madrid Protocol Implementation Act, from the ABA, AIPLA, INTA and various law firms and individuals, here.
Map of Madrid, copyright 2003 Lonely Planet Publications, all rights reserved, travel guides are available here.
Lacroix, Darling.
Link via Gawker, from about.com, audio files re how to pronounce designer names.
Title explained here.
Federal Circuit: Dilution As A Basis For Opposition
Federal Circuit, in the first case considering dilution as a basis for opposing an application. Opposer couldn’t establish that its mark was famous prior to applicant’s use of the mark. Opposition dismissed.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car v. Advantage Rent-a-Car, No. 02-1444 (Fed. Cir. May 20, 2003)
May Lawyers Advertise Using Lies, Damn Lies or Statistics?
John Baden of Kenyon brought this interesting attorney advertising case to the attention of the INTA list yesterday:
“[A] recent decision (published in BNA PCTJ 66,48(May 9, 2003)), held that “It is misleading and self-laudatory for an Ohio law firm to provide prospective clients or other firms with statistics about the number of intellectual
Fourth Circuit Case on Abandonment
Unpublished Fourth Circuit decision. Plaintiff registered AUDITRON in stylized form thirty years ago. Record indicated that he hadn’t used that stylized form for 15 years. Defendant registered AUDITRON for hi-fi speakers, and then moved into health practice management software. Defendant registered auditron.com. Plaintiff brings infringement (section 32 but not 43(a) (infringement of an unregistered mark))
Fat Finger Dialing, the Phone System's Equivalent of Typo-squatting.
Via ICBTollFree: AT&T is suing Sprint, One Call and ASC for what it calls a ‘fat-finger dialing scheme’ whereby they obtained close versions of the toll free number 1 800 CALL ATT.
MCI reportedly owns 1 800 OPERATER (as opposed to ATT’s 1-800-OPERATOR).
ATT reportedly owns 1 800 CALL MCI.
The FCC on fat-finger dialing here.
Not That I Agree With EveryThing They Say
The terms and conditions for this website are pretty funny.