Revelation, a small perfume company, apparently had senior rights to the mark TRUTH.  Calvin Klein bought the rights but allowed Revelation to continue using, and negotiated a trademark co-existence agreement dividing up distribution channels (Calvin Klein got the more expensive outlets).  However, TRUTH CALVIN KLEIN begain showing up in discount stores and Revelation sued. …

Wow, nothing on the Blog about U.S. companies pirating Vietnamese trademarks for months, and now this one via Business Times Asia, after the one on Friday.  Incidentally, the aside in the article makes a mistake.  BASMATI is not a non-US trademark pirated by the US as it is not a trademark (nor is it…

Another U.S Gubernatorial campaign (via Washington Post), another instance of one side registering a domain name consisting of the opponent’s name, another political website that is less than forthright about its source.

This occurred to me as I read of the various governmental resources being devoted to (1) promotion of digital television (which is properly the job of the market); and (2) hearings on P2P spoofing and hacking.

Instead, the resources would be better spent discussing a $200 tax credit for families and businesses that obtain broadband …

Many U.S. trademark owners have successfully relied on Article 6bis of the Paris Convention in order to protect their famous trademark from piracy abroad.  The U.S., in my view, sometimes grants a narrower scope of protection than other countries in situations where it is obvious the U.S. applicant has adopted a non-US company’s trademark (see…

Certain acts become torts only when committed by a certain class of people with a certain intent.  Anyone, it seems, can make a fun of a trademark – but competitors can’t.  The Muppets can make fun of SPAM by naming a wild boar character Spa’am.  MTD, purveyor of Yard-Man Lawnmowers, however, cannot …

The successor-in-interest to the BLACK PANTHER PARTY, the 60’s activitst group, is threatening legal action against an organization calling itself THE NEW BLACK PANTHERS.

UDRPLaw article on Go Daddy’s Domain By Proxy service, which allows the domain name registrant to keep his, her or its identity secret.  Great for limiting spam, that much harder to police the web. 

The inability to easily reconcile the domain name registrant’s privacy concerns with the public policy interest against anonymity in commerce…