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Entries Tagged as 'The Trouble With Trademarks'

I’m a Pepper, You’re a Pepper, Dublin’s not a Pepper Anymore

January 28th, 2012 · No Comments

To follow Mike’s shift toward anti-competitiveness (and beverages):
Dublin Dr. Pepper and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group have settled their trademark licensing dispute and Dublin Dr. Pepper, the beverage darling of the Lonestar State, is no more.
Dublin Dr. Pepper is a Texas favorite.  This original Dr. Pepper was created in 1891, and its birthday is still celebrated [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

Branding Agave?

January 28th, 2012 · No Comments

More on how the law defines things, this time for anti-competitive rather than pro-competitive purposes …
“Tequila” is registered appellation of origin for spirits produced in five Mexican states. A storm is now brewing over proposals in Mexico sponsored by the tequila industry that would limit the use of the word “agave” — the genus of [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

Centers on Law and IP (Or: Perhaps We’ll Just Call It Flurm)

December 21st, 2011 · 9 Comments

We have received a cease and desist letter demanding that we change the name of our IP center from “Center for Law and Intellectual Property” because it infringes the rights of Fordham University’s “Center on Law and Information Policy.”  The letter also demands that we not use the acronym CLIP whatsoever in reference to our [...]

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Tags: Academia · Intellectual Property Law · The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

Regarding Bella’s Jacket

December 1st, 2011 · 1 Comment

I feel like I’m scooping Jacqui here, since she’s the Madisonian Twilight expert, but I was so bothered by the recent district court decision in the Bella’s Jacket Brouhaha that I’m chiming in on the intersection of intellectual property and teen vampires.
Twilight is probably part of basic 21st century cultural literacy, so I’ll presume [...]

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Tags: Art and Politics · Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · Online Norms and Culture · The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

I know from seeing it touted on a television commercial that TUMS has a Facebook page.

July 11th, 2011 · 1 Comment

But I don’t have any interest in “liking” or “friending” TUMS on Facebook, unlike over 45,000 other Facebook users (at last count). I am not going to help TUMS further monetize indigestion via “a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers.”
TUMS is also on Twitter.

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture · The Trouble With Trademarks

Face to Face in Real Space, If the Airlines Permit

July 5th, 2011 · 1 Comment

Despite the ubiquity of the Internet, people still do a lot of traveling in meet space, and we aren’t always happy about that. Today I ran across a list of The 19 Most Hated Companies in America. If you fly often, or at all actually, it will not surprise you to learn that four of [...]

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture · The Trouble With Trademarks

Is That Trademark Misuse, Hon?

June 6th, 2011 · 3 Comments

Down in Baltimore (or depending on your locale, up in Baltimore, over in Baltimore, or out in Baltimore), there is a tempest brewing over the word “Hon” — as in, “Can I warm that up for you, hon?”
The term has long been a part of Baltimore’s collective culture, so much so that the city is [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

From the Department of Unconvincing Counterfeits…

November 16th, 2010 · No Comments

Via.

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

Nothing like waiting 50 years to complain

August 30th, 2010 · 4 Comments

According to Yahoo Sports, Florida State University has decided it wants to be the only Seminoles. FSU has apparently sent a demand letter to a high school 50years after learning that the school calls its teams the Seminoles.

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Tags: Sports · The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

Harley Gets Parody Puskback

June 28th, 2010 · No Comments

Via.

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

Hershey Wants To Enjoin Chocolate Bar-Shaped Brownie Pan

May 19th, 2010 · No Comments

From Law.com:
… when the folks at Williams-Sonoma Inc. started to market a brownie pan in the shape of a chocolate bar, Hershey’s lawyers went to court seeking an injunction to block any further sales.
In a Lanham Act suit filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., Hershey claims that the Williams-Sonoma brownie pan “unlawfully trades [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

Superhero or Household Cleaner?

April 14th, 2010 · No Comments

Take the quiz here.

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

Errors in Tiffany v. eBay, Contributory Liability Is Not the Same as Vicarious Liability

April 6th, 2010 · No Comments

Sandra Rierson, my colleague and co-author on Confronting the Genericism Conundrum, and I were emailing about the Tiffany v. eBay case the other day. She noted that the case furthers a mistake regarding contributory and vicarious liability. I asked her whether she’d like to write a special to Co-Op about the topic, and she agreed. [...]

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Tags: Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law

The Association Game: Palin, Cool J, and Their Brands

April 1st, 2010 · No Comments

As some of you may know, it appears that Fox News made liberal use of archive footage to promote Real American Stories with Sarah Palin. One problem is that there was never a scheduled appearance by LL Cool J. If Fox was using old footage to promote a new show that presents problems in that [...]

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Tags: Copyright Law · Intellectual Property Law · The Trouble With Trademarks · Trademark Law · social norms

On the power of social media

February 16th, 2010 · 2 Comments

A booted traveler got revenge of a sort on Southwest Airlines:
On Feb. 13, a stout 39-year-old man was escorted off an Oakland-to-Burbank Southwest Air flight on the grounds that his size presented a “safety risk.” Unfortunately for Southwest, it messed with “the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater.”
The man was Kevin Smith, who, in addition to being [...]

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Tags: Online Norms and Culture · The Trouble With Trademarks

I think this product may have a trademark problem.

February 6th, 2010 · No Comments

You can buy it here, but why would you want to?

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

McOverreaching

January 25th, 2010 · 4 Comments

From here:
You couldn’t blame Lauren McClusky of Chicago if she were a bit squeamish about using her last name in this story without fear of reprisal from Ronald McDonald and his legal posse.
For McClusky, 19, finds herself at the center of a thorny dispute that involves a series of charity concerts she’s put on over [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

A Scottish brewery, BrewDog of Fraserburgh, has launched Tactical Nuclear Penguin Beer, with a 32% alcohol content.

November 28th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Via the BBC News:
BrewDog was previously branded irresponsible for an 18.2% beer called Tokyo, which it then followed with a low alcohol beer called Nanny State.
Managing director James Watt said a limited supply of Tactical Nuclear Penguin would be sold for £30 each.
He said: “This beer is about pushing the boundaries, it is about taking [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

Merely Descriptive?

November 20th, 2009 · No Comments

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks

What Happens to the Losing Team’s Championship Shirts?

November 4th, 2009 · 1 Comment

Blogger Matt Soniak answers:

The international Christian humanitarian aid group works with Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA to collect misprinted merchandise and distribute it to people living in impoverished nations. (MLB used to require the destruction of shirts and hats proclaiming the wrong champions, but two years ago they began donating their postseason [...]

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Tags: The Trouble With Trademarks