Apple recently filed a lawsuit against Amazon claiming that Amazon is infringing on Apple’s trademark by using the term “Appstore” and that such use is likely to confuse consumers. Apple claims that is has exclusive rights to the phrase because of its iTunes App Store and that Amazon’s use of the phrase will cause irreparable…
S. Victor Whitmill, the tattoo artist who created and tattooed Mike Tyson’s facial tribal tattoo, filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. for copyright infringement on April 28, 2011. Whitmill claims that the facial tattoo appearing on Ed Helms’s character Stu Price in The Hangover Part II infringes on Whitmill’s rights to the tattoo that he…
The Business Insider ran an article containing what it deemed to be some of the most ridiculous trademark attempts. Some of the applications were approved and some were not so lucky. A summary of the trademarks is below. 15. Jersey Shore Star, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi trademark application for “Snooki” was denied by the United States Patent…
The Australian makers of Yellow Tail wine, the best-selling wine in the United States recently filed suit against The Wine Group LLC, the maker of Little Roo, in a New York federal court, alleging trademark infringement. At issue is the likelihood of consumer confusion based on the depiction of a Yellow Tail Wallaby and the…
Ford Motor Co. has filed a lawsuit against Ferrari for trademark infringement stemming from Ferrari’s decision to use the term F150 in connection with the upcoming Formula 1 season. Ferrari’s new race car is called the F150 in celebration of the 150th year of Italian unification. Ford claims that Ferrari is intentionally capitalizing on the…
While its been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, this is seldom the way its taken when it comes to trademarks. Facebook, a popular provider of online networking services, filed a federal lawsuit against Teachbook, an online community for teachers based in Northbrook, Illinois. Facebook claims that the use of the Teachbook mark for an…
Earlier this month CrowdSPRING, an online market place for creative services, identified 10 tips for startups on naming your company. Briefly, the 10 tips are: 1. Think about what you want your company name to convey. 2. Brainstorm to identify name possibilities. 3. Keep the name short, simple, and easy to write and remember. Also consider…
We had a brief conversation with a prospective trademark client recently. This client failed to fully comprehend the importance of trademarking. This is relatively common in our practice, but this client’s take was a bit different. His rationale for not needing to secure a trademark registration for his product name was that the product at…
The State of Kansas is updating the stamp of approval it gives to local growers. Now, products that have at least 75% of their ingredients from, or processing in, Kansas can apply to display the certification mark Simply Kansas. For the past 30 years, a similar certification mark had been available: From the Land of…
The software giant’s attempt to trademark the term “cloud computing” has been the topic of lots of recent tech buzz. Cloud computing refers to a type of technology whereby software is accessed remotely by users who have no control over the infrastructure which supports the software. Both this infrastructure and the software itself can be…