For the past 3 days my in-box has been lighting up at a blistering pace with news alerts about every trademark attorney’s favorite celebrity infant – Blue Ivy Carter (whose mere existence somehow warrants a section on Huffington Post). According to the headlines, the brown eyed babe’s celebrity parents –Beyonce and Jay-Z – ”lost” their fight to protect BLUE IVY . . . as a federally registered trademark that is.
Lara then does a great job summing up the whole stupid situation, including the fact that what “everybody knows” is wrong, as it usually is. Her main point, however, and it’s one I like, is that there is something wrong with celebrities — even prestigious Presidential pals like Jay-Z — getting fast-track treatment for the trademark business at the PTO.
But then again, why should the PTO be different from any other institution? Well, we would like it to be, because we’re idealistic about trademark law, which we (Lara and I and others like us) practice, and would like our clients to get special treatment too.
What’s more troubling, really, is the Lara’s opening sentence, though, isn’t it?
The term of art 