Branding in the Moment
Mobile devices have become extensions of our bodies and brains. We constantly are connected to them, using them virtually every time we want to know, find, watch or buy something. A 2016 study found that we look at our smart phone on average 2,617 times a day, for approximately 2.4 hours. Heavy users look at […]
API Use Legal Considerations
As more and more websites interact with one another, with the express permission of one another or otherwise, the methods of that interaction and the legal consequences continue to come under more and more scrutiny. One avenue for interaction between websites is through Application Programming Interfaces (API’s).
Update Trademark Registrations to Reflect New Technology
If you have trademark registrations for technologies that are now outdated, you may be eligible to participate in a new US Trademark Office program to update your registrations. Here are some examples: – Let’s say your company makes videos, and your registrations say “videotapes featuring musical instruction“ but, since you last renewed your registration, your […]
Branding in a Disruptive World
The Internet presents endless marketing opportunities and challenges. Not only does it lower the barrier to entry for new market entrants, it also challenges large, well-known companies to keep their business models relevant. Many of today’s most popular brands were built at meteoric speed and without the aid of (and initially, the budget for) once-traditional forms […]
Trademark Law Update: Paying Attorneys’ Fees—Even When You Win
In a recent opinion, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the provisions of the Lanham (Trademark) Act permitting appeal of ex parte decisions of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board to a federal district court require the appealing trademark owner to pay the USPTO’s attorneys’ fees and costs—even if […]
Fewer Bites at the Apple for Trademark Registration Issues?
A party usually gets one chance to establish or dispute a claim, and then one chance to appeal as of right. The application of that rule in a late March decision from the U.S. Supreme Court has trademark lawyers re-thinking the interplay between proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) and federal courts […]