Law Blog

  • Preliminary Injunctions – Trademark Infringement

    Preliminary Injunctions – Trademark Infringement

    Anthony Cartee

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    Preliminary Injunctions for Trademark Infringement Preliminary Injunctions – When you accuse someone of infringing your valuable trademark, what actually happens?  In American Rena International Corp v. Sis-Joyce International the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling that very clearly articulated the standards for what is known as preliminary injunctions. Preliminary Injunctions, Generally Imagine a dispute between two parties.  Party P, the plaintiff, accuses party D, the defendant, of doing something wrong – let’s hypothetically say that D has taken to shooting a shotgun into the air in his own backyard which is next door to P’s duck… Read More

  • Secondary Meaning

    Secondary Meaning

    Anthony Cartee

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    Secondary Meaning – Zatarain’s v. Oak Grove Smokehouse Secondary Meaning – Terms that are merely descriptive are not usually protectable under the Lanham Act as trademarks. For example, one could not get a trademark on the term “FRIED CHICKEN” – because the term simply describes an entire class of product.  If that was the end of the discussion, this would, all in all, be a fairly simple and clear rule.  However there is one major exception to this rule – when the descriptive term has acquired secondary meaning. Secondary meaning is always dependent on the consuming public.  The rationale behind… Read More

  • Trademark Trial Appeal Board & Infringement Lawsuits

    Trademark Trial Appeal Board & Infringement Lawsuits

    Anthony Cartee

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    Trademark Trial Appeal Board & Infringement Lawsuits Trademark Trial Appeal Board (TTAB) – In B&B Hardware v. Hargis Industries the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled on a contentious case of trademark infringement litigation that had been going on for over fifteen years.  One of the central issues was the very, very interesting role of decisions made by the Trademark Trial Appeal Board (TTAB) which is an adjudicatory branch of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO.) Background of the Case Plaintiff B&B makes a type of fastener device used in the aerospace industry that it sells under… Read More

  • Three Intellectual Property Protections

    Three Intellectual Property Protections

    Anthony Cartee

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    Three Intellectual Property Protections – Navigating Different IP Protections Three Intellectual Property Protections – You now have a business and with it, a whole lot of ideas on how to brand it, market it, and make big waves in the industry. But how do you navigate the different types of intellectual property regimes to go about protecting your ideas? There are three Intellectual Property protections (technically four Intellectual Property protections if you count trade secrets, but we’ll cover that in a future post) that are available to you, provided that your idea meets the provisions. They are (1) patents, (2)… Read More

  • Genericide: How Success May Cancel Trademark

    Genericide: How Success May Cancel Trademark

    Anthony Cartee

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    Genericide: How Success May Cancel A Trademark Genericide Discussion – What do the terms “Thermos,” “Aspirin,” and “Yo-Yo” have in common?  They are all very successful products that have actually lost their trademark protection under the Lanham Act due to a doctrine known as Genericide.  In general, when accused of trademark infringement, one of the common defenses is “genericness.”  This defense says that the term is so broad that it doesn’t actually identify a unique source but instead describes an entire class of products.  A term may inherently be generic (“bed”) or may become generic through genericide (“Murphy bed.”)  Here we’ll look… Read More

  • Voluntary Cessation and Loss of Standing

    Voluntary Cessation and Loss of Standing

    Anthony Cartee

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    Voluntary Cessation and Loss of Standing Voluntary Cessation Case – Competitors should not be able to use trademark lawsuits as offensive weapons.  This was the clear message issued by Justice Roberts for a unanimous Supreme Court in the case of Already LLC v. Nike Inc. In the case, also covered by Reuters, Nike sued Already (DBA Yum) for trademark infringement of its iconic Nike Air Force One sneakers.  Already, maker of the “Sugar” and “Soulja Boy” brands of shoes, countersued to invalidate Nike’s trademark.  Then, things became tricky. Already’s Countersuit to Void the Trademark After considering all the factors, Nike decided that Already… Read More

  • Gucci America Inc v. Guess Inc – When Imitation Exceeds Flattery

    Gucci America Inc v. Guess Inc – When Imitation Exceeds Flattery

    Anthony Cartee

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    Gucci America Inc v. Guess Inc – When Imitation Exceeds Flattery Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Good artists borrow; great artists steal.  Nowhere are these old adages more apt than the hidden focus groups and team meetings of the fashion industry.  What’s trendy this season is often only good for the clearance rack in six months time – leading to enormous pressure to constantly produce products on the cutting edge.  Invariably, similar looking articles of clothing and other apparel are going to hit the shelves.  At what point does imitation cross the line?  The Trademark infringement case of Gucci… Read More

  • Trade Dress Rights – Beyond Words & Logos

    Trade Dress Rights – Beyond Words & Logos

    Anthony Cartee

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    Trade Dress Rights – Beyond Words & Logos Trade Dress Rights – Trade dress is a form of intellectual property. Trade dress is the visual element or aesthetics of a product or its packaging. Trade dress can be the visual appearance of a product or packaging that signify the entity behind the product to consumers. Think Coca-Cola. Think about that green Gecko lizard commercials (the trade dress) behind the Insurance Entity: GEICO. Trade dress is often divided into two categories: product packaging and product configuration. TWO EXAMPLES – Trade dress rights have been granted to the physical shape of Coca-Cola’s… Read More

  • Supplemental Register & Descriptive Mark

    Supplemental Register & Descriptive Mark

    Anthony Cartee

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    Supplemental Register & Descriptive Mark Supplemental Register & Your Descriptive Mark – The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is aware that not every business owner or organization is going to seek to employ fanciful marks like “Kleenex.” More likely than not, marks are going to be considered descriptive with words that describe an ingredient, quality, feature, purpose, or characteristic of the product or service. Marks like “Kara’s Cupcakes” or “Make Up Forever” are descriptive marks that will likely first need to apply to the supplemental register before receiving full trademark protections on the principal register. The principal register is… Read More

  • Degree of Protection & Spectrum of Distinctiveness

    Degree of Protection & Spectrum of Distinctiveness

    Anthony Cartee

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    Degree of Protection & Spectrum of Distinctiveness Degree of Protection & Spectrum of Distinctiveness – So, you’ve got a mark in mind that you want to register, what do you do next? Find a trademark attorney, but before you do that, it’s important to understand how much protection your mark may receive or if it can be registrable as a trademark at all. A prospective trademark owner, whether the mark be the name of the entity, the name of a product, or a slogan is analyzed for registrability based on the mark’s connection to its classes of goods or services.… Read More