Keeping it real: Bye-bye, Banksy
Trademarks are an open book — even for Banksy. One of the signal features of the United States trademark registration system is its openness. As... Read more
Category: Trademark registration
Through WINDOWS®, darkly
Mr. Thorne, legal marketing wordsmith extraordinaire, wonders: Why would a court opinion use the magic ® symbol to refer to one registered trademark and not... Read more
Words matter
Words are almost everything in a trademark registration, notwithstanding that one drawing. Stick with me. It’s going to get a little esoteric — not to... Read more
Trademark Modernization Act!
There we were, all locked down in our houses and not going to the INTA Annual Meeting, and there was a Trademark Modernization Act! Of... Read more
Strange bedfellows
Parlous times: John Welch endorses the International Star Registry! Originally posted 2012-03-06 16:30:24. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Read more
End-run around the USPTO
As you can imagine, the power vested in a court by this law can only be used for good... or evil. And in this Second Circuit appeal of a matter in which our office was brought in after the entry of a judgment by the district court, we argue that it was not so good what the judge did. Read more
Uplifting blog post on trademark protection
How to get that ® to rise above it all in Microsoft Word. Originally posted 2014-08-18 11:21:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Read more
Trademark “use in interstate commerce” and the decline of federalism (Best of 2016)
Originally posted December 17, 2016.What’s the use? Trademark use, that is. Heck, it’s getting harder to figure out what’s not “trademark use” these days, as... Read more
En Banc: Son of THE SLANTS Appeal Brief to the Federal Circuit
We’ve got your First Amendment right here: Props to my partner John Connell and associates Darth Newman and, of course, the redoubtable Joel MacMull — who... Read more
Free “legal” advice — pro bono, that is
What do you know? No one can own “pro bono” — regardless of how it’s spelled. John Welch: The USPTO refused registration of the mark... Read more
Play-Doh, nontraditional trademarks and the odor of success
I was recently asked to prepare an analysis of Play-Doh’s application to register the smell of Play-Doh as a trademark, and, as I do all... Read more
Wrong skillset for trademark registration (Best of 2016)
Originally posted on April 28, 2016. John Welch reports, at the TTABlog, about what you’d think would be a no-brainer: The Board affirmed a refusal... Read more
In which we blog on some other guy’s dice
What happens in Vegas stays in Albany, NY? #trademarks #hockey https://t.co/7ZVGBLJBto — Tiffany Valeriano (@trademarktiff) December 11, 2016 The story linked to by Tiffany Valeriano explains:... Read more
Why I let my trademark registration lapse
In 2006 I filed to register the trademark LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®, not because I had experienced much in the way of a need for trademark enforcement,... Read more