One thing I love about trademark law is how extraordinarily easy it is to find useful examples of basic trademark lessons in real life – even in a television show that has been called “mind-numbing” and “absolutely ridiculous” and has spawned a Facebook page called “Jersey Shore is Stupid & A Waste of Time.”

Yes, dear readers, Jersey Shore has yet another trademark lesson for us. Last year, I wrote about Snooki and Mike “The Situation”’s applications for their respective nicknames for a variety of entertainment services. This year’s lesson comes from Paul DelVeccho, aka DJ Pauly D by virtue of a lawsuit filed against him on July 1 by one Paul Lis, aka DJ Paulie. Mr. Lis owns registrations for DJ PAULIE and DJ PAULIE’S WORLDWIDE COUNTDOWN for “Entertainment services in the nature of disc jockey services” and claims a first use date in DJ PAULIE of 1973; Mr. Lis filed his applications in May 2008. DJ Pauly filed two applications for DJ PAULY D in February 2010, both of which are currently refused on the ground of a perceived likelihood of confusion with Mr. Lis’ registrations.