Question: What do Sean Combs, J.K. Rowling, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, and Mark Wahlberg have in common? Two things, actually. First, they are all listed on the Forbes 2017 Celebrity 100 List; second, they all have gone to...more
Recently, Privacy Shield participants started receiving these troubling alerts, purportedly from the International Trade Administration, warning that the recipient organization owes a new fee, and threatening to cancel that...more
Part of the fun of trademark practice is its unique overlap with literature, art, science, culture, and psychology. Words and symbols are used as trademarks to identify sources of commercial goods; convey messages to...more
The International Trademark Association (INTA) has just launched its annual ginormous conference here in America’s Finest City. My colleagues back at the office feign jealousy that we are in San Diego on a ‘junket.’ But...more
Anyone who knows me at all knows that I suffer from a terrible affliction called “early adopter syndrome.” I had a cell phone when it really was more of a brick with a speaker and the first smartphone, I can tell you, was not...more
Trademark owners are in the midst of another ‘think’ about the best way to protect and preserve their reputations online. Specifically, beginning on March 30, 2015 the Sunrise Period opened for brand owners to fork over...more
I can’t define disparagement, but I know it when I see it…
On Wednesday, June 18, 2014 the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, the judicial body that provides review to all Federal trademark filings and disputes relating...more
Last week I blogged about a common deceptive technique used by some publishers around the world that send apparently official invoices to trademark applicants in the hopes that people will reflexively pay outrageous sums for...more
There are few things more annoying than the feeling that you have been duped into paying for something that you neither need nor want. IP owners, and particularly trademark owners, are common targets for scammers seeking to...more