The small blue bird adorning nearly every company’s social media section. The verbiage “tweet” and “retweet” working their way into the fabric of modern language. The creation of character-limited, short-form posts as a new...more
How would you pronounce #law? Is it “hashtag law,” as the PTO examiner suggested would be the most common understanding, or “pound law,” as alleged by the unsuccessful registrant of #law as a service mark. And to what does it...more
In a precedential opinion addressing the most fundamental requirement for trademark protection, the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (Board) affirmed the US Patent & Trademark Office’s (PTO) refusal to register a “#” based mark...more
When the first social media hashtag was used in 2007, users had no idea how ubiquitous hashtags would become. Today, hashtags are an essential part of our lives (and a subject we’ve been writing about for years). From...more
A federal district court in California has added to the small body of case law addressing whether it’s permissible for one party to use another party’s trademark as a hashtag. The court held that, for several reasons, the 9th...more
Considering the defendant’s use of the plaintiff’s trademarks in hashtags and other social media posts, a California federal court granted a preliminary injunction to halt the use....more
The Northern District of California recently released an order that sheds new light on how courts grapple with the constantly-increasing use of trademarks as hashtags....more
In today’s world, most businesses use hashtags to boost their brand awareness and products and services on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn....more
In a recent precedential decision, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“Board”) confirmed that a hashtag symbol (#) generally adds little or no source-indicating distinctiveness to a trademark. In this case, rapper...more
The August 2018 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses requirements for registering a scent mark, the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's confirmation on whether hashtags add distinctiveness to a...more
William Adams is a musical performer who is more famously known by his stage name, will.i.am. A recent ruling from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, unfortunately makes him a...more
As the explosion in popularity of various social media outlets continues, new norms are increasingly clear: once-descriptive social media hashtags and Twitter handles are now valuable assets that we associate with specific...more
Twitter®, Instagram®, Facebook®, Pinterest® and other social media websites and apps are great ways to interact with friends, family and potential customers. They are great avenues for advertising and promotion of one’s...more
Social media is buzzing with Olympic hashtags, particularly #Rio2016 and #TeamUSA. But the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) is cracking down on hashtag use by companies without Olympic sponsorship deals, calling it “ambush...more
Since our previous article on the emerging issue of trademark rights in hashtags, the use of hashtags in social media marketing has continued to grow. Described as the “ignition keys to a social media keyword search,”...more
Welcome to the first issue of EU Retail News written by members of the Retail Team at Bryan Cave - EU and US: Marketing fitspiration from SoulCycle - SoulCycle has taken the US by storm, with fitness studios...more
PTAB Update on Inter Partes Review - On August 19, 2015, the Director of the USPTO released a blog post reporting on the state of post-grant review proceedings created by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011 and...more
Oh, the once humble hashtag (or pound sign, number sign, octothorpe, etc.). For so long a symbol both ubiquitous and free from controversy, its new life as a go-to signifier of discussions and trending topics on Twitter has...more
Welcome to the newest issue of Socially Aware, our Burton Award winning guide to the law and business of social media. In this edition, we present a “grand unifying theory” of today’s leading technologies and the legal...more
In This Issue: - Hashtag Trademarks: #ItsAllAboutTheUse - Upcoming Changes in Canadian Trade Mark Trademark Law - Changes in U.S Certification Mark Requirements - gTLD Sunrise Periods Now Open - The...more
Hashtags have become ubiquitous in social media, but their status as intellectual property—particularly as trademarks—is still developing. First adopted by Twitter users to link user posts, hashtags are character strings...more