Postcard from Ireland
This was spotted at Donegal Castle in Donegal Town. We couldn’t help but share. It brings a whole new meaning of the questions related to costs of enforcement.
intellectual property
A License to Ask Questions
When a company is growing, they begin selling more products and often start exploring options like distribution agreements and licensing agreements. When looking into those agreements, it important that the terms and scope of the agreement are understood by both parties and written down. Terms of the agreement can include scope restrictions such as whether … Read more
Lift With Your Head
Original image from Everkinetic Cybersquatting is generally bad faith registration of another’s trademark in a domain name. Under section 43(d) of the Lanham Act (also known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or ACPA), a person shall be liable to the owner of a trademark if that person has a bad faith intent to … Read more
Don’t Cross the Red Cross Trademark
Federal law prohibits anyone other than the American National Red Cross and “its duly authorized employees and agents and the sanitary and hospital authorities of the armed forces of the United States from using the Greek red cross on a white ground or the words ‘Red Cross’ or ‘Geneva Cross.’” The law states that “[w]hoever wears … Read more
This Split is Bananas
The right to create derivative works is one of the exclusive rights of the owner of a copyright. A “derivative work,” according to 17 U.S.C. §101, “is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any … Read more
Chicken in Black (and Orange-Red)
Trademarks can be anything that tells me as a customer that this product or services that I am trying to buy today came from the same source as the last time I bought it. Or put another way, when my nephew has something on his wish list, what can I use to make sure that … Read more
Wondering about Fan Fiction
Fan fiction is material created by fans of a piece of work rather than the owners or creators. Movies, television shows and books all have fans that have spun off their own stories, drawings, movies and more. The fans take characters created by another on new adventures, some within canonical fictional universe, some decidedly not. … Read more
Brewing Up Confusion
I admit it, one of my favorite things about craft beer is the clever names. There are puns, odd references, and just plain silliness. It just tickles my fancy. But they are also trademarks, and as more beers come on the market, there are more chances for conflict. These disputes have been highlighted by several … Read more
Tale of Two Tables
The owner of copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: to reproduce the copyrighted work in copies or phonorecords; to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work; to distribute copies or phonorecords of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or … Read more
Which way to Trademark City?
After asking friends, family, and strangers sitting next to you at the bar what they think of it, you have finally decided on a name for your newest product. Now you want to protect it with a federal trademark, but how do you do that? First, I assume that you have already searched the mark … Read more