Never trust a hippie?
Ron ColemanFor years I’ve been kvetching here about the phenomenon of municipal overreach on intellectual property claims, whether it’s catchphrases with no particular geographic association; transit line symbols that do convey…
The not so bright line
The preamble of the Lanham Act Section 2 is followed by six lower-case–lettered sections, the fifth of which contains four separately numbered “grounds” on which it is permissible to refuse…
Best of 2010: The generic agony of defeat
First published on February 11, 2010. The best LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® blog item title ever was evidently wasted — and I’m sorry I didn’t keep you quite so up to…
How generic is your cupcakery? Or is it CUPCAKERY™ after all?
From Ryan Gile: Is CUPCAKERY a generic term for a cupcake bakery? At first, the word “cupcakery” seems somewhat suggestive–a unique play on the words cupcake and bakery. However, with…
Likelihood of — well, no, actually. Not.
At least in some parts of the country, LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION is something judges actually sometimes don’t find. Out there, for example. No, the other side — yeah. The left.…
Gadget goes gonzo
Updated (see below) in September, 2011: Firefly Digital explains the vision behind their, um, trademarks — including the one they claim a little outfit called Google is infringing: They embody…
Web 2.0, but nothing’s changed
Remember the silliness over the attempt by a certain attorney to secure trademark rights for CYBERLAWYER? The notable part about how that went down was that the foolishness was abated…
How to describe a Catch 22
Michael Hall considers the PTO’s “Heads I Win, Tails You Lose” policy, by which it uses trademark registrations as evidence to refuse new applications on the basis of “descriptiveness”: he…
The generic agony of defeat
The best LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION® blog item title ever was evidently wasted — and I’m sorry I didn’t keep you quite so up to date on this — but, as…
I’m a CYBERLAWYER, too!
Ron ColemanSlashdot: BigTimOBrien writes to mention the EFF is reporting that self-proclaimed cyberlawyer, Eric Menhart, has decided to trademark use of the term “cyberlaw” and is threatening other lawyers with legal…