Ferrara Candy Company, the maker of Nerds, recently filed a lawsuit against the maker of Dweebs candy. What looks like a quirky fight between two playful names is actually a cautionary tale for startups and small businesses building their brands. Ferrara has spent decades growing Nerds into a cultural touchstone. In 2024 alone, sales topped … Read more
We are seeing more and more scams related to trademarks. They are getting increasingly sophisticated. Please, please, please do not pay for anything over the phone. The USPTO never asks for money over the phone. The website is www.uspto.gov. It is the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Some of the scams say things … Read more
In today’s digital era, the world of intellectual property is evolving rapidly. With technology making the technical aspects of filing trademark applications more accessible than ever, it might seem like the process is becoming straightforward. And to a certain extent, it is. With user-friendly USPTO interfaces, AI-driven tools, and abundant resources, the barriers to entry … Read more
When a fantastic trademark dispute arises, especially one involving superheroes, this trademark attorney cannot help but blog about it. The nature of this particular trademark dispute is epic, perhaps rising to the level worthy of a superhero blockbuster (or maybe that’s just this attorney’s trademark geekdom talking). In either event, like many legal disputes, this … Read more
As promised in an earlier blog post about Bulleit, bottle shapes, and blurring (“dilution” was the word I mostly used last time, but I was really eager for that alliteration), I am back with an updated blog post. As a recap to the earlier post, the case involves Diageo, the company that owns Bulleit Frontier … Read more
Remember when I said that we’d have some follow-up to Carter’s Big Mac post? Well, here is one of those posts! Today, we’ll talk about what it means to “use” a trademark. Trademarks are creatures of the relationship between the source of a product and its customers. They don’t exist without the product or the … Read more
A previous version of this blog post failed to take into account some nuance and important facts, namely that Healthy Soap (R) was actually registered on the USPTO’s Supplemental Register. Thanks to our readers for bringing this to my attention and for allowing us to expand on some important trademark basics. As the father of … Read more
I like trademark law because it often just makes sense. For example, let’s talk about the requirement that a mark must be in use in order to obtain protection. For a trademark to be registered in the United States, it has to actually be used in a way that a customer sees the mark when … Read more
Working here at Ogden Glazer + Schaefer, you get to hear about all the interesting legal battles that happen around the world. Here is one that I am surprised did not get shared with you. [Note from Erin: This post was written by Carter, our high school assistant. He is not a lawyer. He is … Read more
We help people with contracts that buy and sell their products and their businesses, license their products and their intellectual property, and lots of other things that lead to the question of “What do I charge?” Our first answer tends to be “That’s more of a business question than a legal question.” But that answer doesn’t … Read more